Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat: BJP not ‘vocal for local’

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 5

The BJP continues to maintain a mystery around its Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat nominee despite recent rounds of discussions.

The party, which actively supports everything home-grown, is in no mood to be vocal for local in City Beautiful, one of the most high-profile parliamentary segments in the country, which stalwarts from both the BJP and the Congress continue to covet. Neither party has declared a candidate here.

The Tribune has learnt that the panel for BJP Chandigarh LS seat nominees has been ready for a while with the top BJP brass holding discussions with UT unit chief Jatinder Pal Malhotra.

Besides local leaders — former MP Satya Pal Jain, former Chandigarh unit chief Sanjay Tandon and Arun Sood, the panel prominently mentions the term, “outsider”, keeping options for a non-local open.

It is learnt that poll surveys have hinted at a favourable edge for some local candidates and yet the BJP continues to dither on fielding them.

“There is still time,” Malhotra told The Tribune when asked what was delaying the announcement of Chandigarh BJP candidate when the party has even announced six candidates for Punjab, where it is contesting solo for the first time.

Sources in the BJP said local factionalism was a key challenge for the party to field a Chandigarh leader from the seat. “There are apprehensions of heartburn if one local candidate is fielded and others ignored,” said a leader.

But that argument does not cut ice given BJP leadership’s firmness with respect to political decision making. Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led BJP parliamentary board did not think twice before appointing newcomers Bhajan Lal Sharma, Mohan Yadav and Vishnu Deo Sai as CMs in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh respectively.

So why should the BJP hesitate to field a local from Chandigarh is the question that intrigues many in the party.

“There is this strange fixation with outsiders for Chandigarh seat even when winnability of a local is a given,” a leader privy to discussions said.

Chandigarh will vote in the last phase on June 1.

Even in the Congress, the contest for the seat is underway. Former four-time MP Pawan Bansal is again eyeing the segment which Anandpur Sahib MP Manish Tewari has also long coveted.

Kirron Kher, the sitting BJP MP, has bowed out of the race this year.