At the time when BJP is actively campaigning for the upcoming lok Sabha polls, Chandigarh unit of Congress is yet to get into election mode and is awaiting the announcement of party’s candidate from the seat.
Ironically, barring Congress, all the political parties in Chandigarh have been campaigning for several weeks now. With Congress city unit divided into several factions, the party faces a bumpy road in Chandigarh prior to the General Elections this year. This is for the first time that there are five more aspirants to get Congress ticket from the seat for lok Sabha polls, apart from the sitting MP and former Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal.
Earlier the issue of Railway Board bribery scam wherein Bansal’s nephew was caught accepting bribe and recently, with the party facing factional infighting, the Congress seems to be struggling hard ahead of the crucial polls. leave alone the campaign issue, the party is yet to begin election related work like constitution of committees at booth-levels and committees for other works.
When contacted, BB Behl, Chandigarh Congress president said, “The party will start election campaigning after the announcement of candidate from Chandigarh constituency. We are waiting for the announcement of party’s candidate from here.” He added, “In the meantime, the party has been organising various programmes to connect with the city residents. The local MP is addressing public meetings and interacting with the residents on regular basis now.”
The main reason for the lackadaisical approach of the party ahead of elections is said to be the dispute between some party leaders and local MP Bansal. Since the name of Bansal cropped up in Railway Board Bribery scam, some local party leaders have been continuously raising the issue of the scam and are demanding that a new face should be given a chance to fight on Congress’ ticket from Chandigarh this time.
Besides Bansal, the five aspirants including Congress leaders namely President District Congress Committee urban-I HS lucky, former senior deputy Mayor Bhupinder Singh Badheri, former councilor Chander Mukhi Sharma, Chaman lal Sharma and Kewal Ram had submitted their applications to Chandigarh Congress Election Committee to get party’s ticket to contest elections from the city. Since then, the senior leaders of the party are yet to reconcile.
Going by the results of all the previous lok Sabha elections from 1967 when this seat came into existence, the Congress has won this seat seven times through Amar Nath Vidyalankar in 1971, Jagan Nath Kasuhal in 1980, then again Jagan Nath Kaushal in 1984, Pawan Kumar Bansal in 1991 and then in 1999, 2004 and 2009. During 2009 lok Sabha elections, Bansal had retained Chandigarh’s constituency recording a hat-trick on the seat.
The BJP has won the seat in 1996 and 1998 through Satya Pal Jain and Harmohan Dhawan had won the city seat in 1989 on Janata Dal ticket. Meanwhile, the BJP and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been actively campaigning across the city. Eyeing to woo Chandigarh voters, the city BJP has launched “NaMo Tea Party”, Missed Call” among other campaigns while AAP is organising Jhadu (broom) Yatra to connect with the voters of Chandigarh.