Chandigarh Congress president Subhash Chawla’s son Sumit Chawla has filed nomination from ward number 14 for the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election.
Similarly, wife (Harpreet Kaur) and sister (Balwinder Kaur) of leader of the Opposition and Congress councillor Devinder Singh Babla, whose ward has been reserved for a woman candidate, also filed nominations from ward number 10 and 22, respectively.
In BJP, tickets have been given to the wife of councillor and former deputy mayor Anil Kumar Dubey; councillor Chandrawati Shukla’s husband Pappu Shukla; councilor Jagtar Singh Jagga’s wife Sarabjeet Kaur and councillor Vinod Aggarwal’s wife Savita Gupta.
These are the relatives of politicians of both the parties-Congress and BJP who have filed nomination for the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections. The filing of nominations for MC Polls which began on November 27, concluded on Saturday.
Moreover, the party list of candidates of main political parties -BJP and Congress for MC polls in Chandigarh feature many husbands, wives, sons and daughters triggering rebellion from other ticket-hopefuls. This year, the reservation of the wards has made many councillors and officer-bearers of BJP and Congress bring their spouses to contest from their seats in the municipal corporation elections. This time around, of the 35 wards, 16 are reserved in MC elections.
As many leaders of these parties were not ready to give up their ward to any other candidate; they have chosen their wives or daughters as the candidate. Many BJP and Congress rebels are contesting the civic polls as Independent candidates. As the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contesting its maiden election this time, so most tickets have gone to long-time party workers. Some of the new entrants to the party, who came from Congress along with Pardeep Chhabra have also been accommodated in the list.
A City based political analyst says that central leadership of the parties may have asked their leaders to desist from nepotism, but, while releasing the list of candidates, they seem to have done otherwise. Fearing loss of tickets from their wards, some leaders had joined the Aam Aadmi Party earlier. Many BJP and Congress rebels are contesting the civic polls as Independent candidates. “Whichever party you look at, nepotism is rampant. Other aspects are irrelevant. If you have the right surname, you will get a ticket. Politics is not a vocation, but a family business. If daddy is a councilor or Mayor, then his son or daughter, regard the ward as their heirloom,” he added.
The most high-profile name on the Congress party’s list is that of Sumit Chawla, son of Congress president Subhash Chawla who is contesting election from ward 14. Chawla is not the only one from a political family to get a ticket. Atinder Singh Robby, son of former Congress councillor Bhupinder Singh Badheri, has got the party ticket from ward number 30. Davinder Kumar Gupta, son of former city Congress president Kulbhushan Gupta, and Jagjit Singh Kang, brother of former Punjab minister Jahmohan Singh Kang, have been named as candidates. In BJP, tickets have been given to the wife of councillor and former deputy mayor Anil Kumar Dubey.
Chandigarh Congress chief Subhash Chawla said, “The shortlisting of the candidates has been done based on merit and survey of the wards.”
Another Congress leader said that the party’s state in-charge Harish Chaudhary approved the list of candidates prepared by the state election committee comprising Chandigarh state president Subhash Chawla and former MP Pawan Kumar Bansal among others.
The committee scrutinised all applications in detail and after discussion, finalised candidates as party’s official candidates.
Congress, which has faced criticism for promoting nepotism in politics, wasted no time in hitting back at the BJP. A congress leader said, “BJP has given tickets to family members of their senior leaders. This has made it clear that there is a huge difference between the Kathni (words) and Karni (deeds) of the BJP.”
The BJP, however, maintained that the family of a potential candidate can be “neither a qualification nor a disqualification”. Chandigarh BJP president Arun Sood said, “As wards of many councillors had changed to women and became reserved seats, tickets were distributed accordingly. “Winnability is the key criterion for the selection of candidates. The family members of some sitting councillors have been given tickets based on the survey and winnability factor.”
Traditionally, MC elections in Chandigarh were a two-cornered fight between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). But this time around, AAP is also in the fray.
Chandigarh has a total of 6.3 lakh voters, comprising 3.3 lakh male, 2.99 lakh female and 17 third gender. The voting will be conducted from 7.30 am to 5 pm on December 24. The result will be declared on December 27.