Fissures in Cong ahead of Kalka civic body elections

Sanjay Bumbroo

Panchkula, June 13

The infighting in the Congress has come to the fore as three of its candidates are contesting the elections for the Kalka Municipal council (MC) president’s post. Now, the prestige of Kalka MLA Pradeep Chaudhary and former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan is at stake as their candidates are contesting the MC election.

Pradeep Chaudhary is campaigning for Pawan Kumari Sharma while Chander Mohan is supporting former chairman Vijay Bansal for the Kalka MC president’s post.

According to information despite several meetings to bring a consensus on a single candidate both the leaders, who have strong hold in Kalka, have refused to support any one candidate. In such a situation, the chances of splitting of the Congress votes have also increased, which would help the BJP candidate.

Apart from Vijay Bansal and Pawan Kumari Sharma another Congress leader Navdeep Sharma Nabi is also in the fray. It is believed that he has support of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, but till now no higher rung leader of the party has visited Kalka to campaign for him.

In such a situation, the old voter of the Congress is confused as to whom he/she should vote and the Congress has not given its election symbol to any candidate in fray.

Meanwhile, the BJP is trying its best to take advantage of the factionalism in the Congress. The BJP has fielded former councillor Krishan Lamba in contest for the post of the MC president. Haryana Assembly Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, former MLA Latika Sharma and BJP district in-charge Sanjay Sharma are campaigning for Lamba.

The BJP says, “If the people of Kalka elect the BJP candidate as city’s council head, then it will be easy to get development work done here as there is saffron party government in the state. Our leaders are continuously campaigning that the Congress MLA has not been able to get any development work done in the Kalka Assembly constituency due to which people are suffering.”

“Our leaders are trying to make people understand that there will be the BJP government in the state for more than two years, due to which people should choose party’s candidate as city council president,” the BJP added.

At the same time, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has also entered the fray by fielding Ghanshyam Tagra as its candidate for the post of the MC president. At present, only district level leaders are campaigning in his favour.

Satinder Singh Tony from the INLD, Kuldeep from the BSP and Azad Charan Singh are also is in the MC poll fray. INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala will soon visit Kalka to campaign for the party candidate Satinder Singh Tony.