Baddi civic body gets new chief

Surjeet Chawdhary was elected the new president of the Baddi Municipal Council, receiving six votes, including support from local MLA Ramkumar Chawdhary. He is the third president in the current council tenure, which ends in December 2025.

The position became vacant after Tarsem Chawdhary resigned on October 13, only to later attempt retracting his resignation. However, by that time, the resignation had been forwarded to the Director of Urban Development by the Deputy Commissioner (DC), and the post was declared vacant on October 18.

Although fresh elections were initially scheduled for October 19, they were postponed due to lack of quorum, and October 22 was set as the new date. Baddi’s council consists of nine members—four from BJP, four from Congress, and one independent. Surjeet received votes from the independent councillor, four Congress councillors, and the local MLA, while the four BJP members abstained.

This marks the Congress party’s tactical move to rotate the presidency among its councillors, securing unity and maintaining control of the council with the MLA’s critical support.