Third time lucky, BJP fields Sanjay Tandon from Chandigarh
Sandeep Rana
Chandigarh, April 10
The BJP has finally reposed its faith in former city unit president and present HP co-in charge Sanjay Tandon declaring him candidate for the city Lok Sabha seat.
Sources said Kher was not in the race for ticket this time. Apart from sixty-year-old Tandon, former BJP president Arun Sood and ex-MP Satya Pal Jain were among several other contenders for ticket.
His take on…
Kirron Kher
Despite her health issues, she bravely did Chandigarh’s “seva”. She had 95 per cent attendance in Parliament during her term. I will start from where she left.
City issues
Several UT issues have been pending with the Centre for a long time. “I will try to get them resolved as soon as possible,” said Tandon.
Fighting INDIA bloc
Two plus two is four. But, this alliance is -2. People want to know why they are together in UT and rivals in the bordering state. People will also ask them what are their common issues and goals. They will fall apart as the elections draw near, he said.
Sure of victory
Tandon thanked the leadership for showing faith in him. To achieve the party’s target of 400+ seats, the first seat would come from Chandigarh, he said.
Cong candidate likely after April 14
Congress is likely to declare its candidate after April 14. Pawan Kumar Bansal and MP Manish Tewari are front runners.
Earlier, the names of Union minister Anurag Thakur, actress Kangana Ranaut and devotional singer Kanhiya Mittal were also said to have been discussed for BJP high command. However, realising the city was highly in favour of a local candidate, Tandon emerged as the obvious choice of the leadership.
Explaining why the party disregarded a decade old trend of bringing a celebrity to contest the Chandigarh seat, BJP sources said under Tandon’s city unit presidency, the party won two LS polls (2014, 2019), two corporation elections, two panchayat samiti and one zila parishad election.
“I am grateful to PM Narendra Modi, BJP chief JP Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah,” said Tandon, named in the tenth list of nine BJP candidates today.
He has been the city party chief for a decade (2010-2020), a record of sort in the BJP. Tandon was in the reckoning for ticket in 2014 and 2019 as well, but the party had gone with Kher due to apparent factionalism in the party at that time.
Tandon was attending a bhog ceremony in Sector 38 (West) when the news about his candidature reached him. He swiftly left the venue along with party president Jatinder Pal Malhotra.
He was sitting close to former Congress MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, top contender for Congress ticket, when he came to know about his candidature. He went to his Sector 18 house where he was welcomed by party leaders and workers.
He went to BJP office Kamlam, Sector 33, where party in charge Vijay Rupani greeted him. A large number of party leaders and volunteers reached at the party office, which led to a traffic jam.
Joined RSS at the age of eight
Chandigarh: Tandon, a businessman, is an ardent follower of Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Son of former Chhattisgarh Governor and ex-Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Balramji Dass Tandon, he first joined the RSS at the age of eight.
On how he got into the party, Tandon said once Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the then Chandigarh party in charge, had come to his house to meet his father, who was then Punjab BJP president. When he brought tea for Modi, he asked him why not he worked for the party. Soon, Tandon became a member of the city BJP executive.
During Emergency (1975-77) when his father was in jail for 19 months, he led a rally comprising children for detained leaders. He worked as in charge at Amritsar during the 1991 LS poll. In 1995, he was nominated to the Chandigarh BJP executive. In 1997, he was election in charge for the Assembly elections in Rajpura. In 2007, he became city general Secretary and was elected unopposed as president in January 2010. He had remained at the post till 2020.
