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Chandigarh: Ironic as
it may sound, the sitting mayor of Chandigarh has not been able to
find favour with the ruling Congress party to get himself a ward
to contest next month's municipal corporation election in the
city.
Mayor Ravinder Pal Singh is not among the list of 26 candidates
announced by the Congress for the Dec 17 election.
Ravinder Pal Singh, a councillor from ward number 21, was unable
to find a new seat for himself as his seat got reserved for a
woman candidate this time.
He is not the only Congress candidate affected by seats getting
reserved for women. Some candidates, like ward number 1 councillor
Chander Mukhi Sharma, have been forced to shift to other wards.
A total of nine out of 26 seats, including two for the Scheduled
Caste category, have been reserved for women this time.
The mayor is not alone among the Congress bigwigs who have not
been able to find a seat to contest in the poll.
Senior Deputy Mayor Kuldeep Singh, who has held the post twice,
too is among the leaders dropped by the Congress. Former senior
deputy mayor (2008) Anju Beniwal is also not among the Congress
candidates.
"In an election year when the mayor and other senior functionaries
are supposed to be the face of the party, we have a situation
where these leaders are unable to even contest. This is really
embarrassing. People are already saying that the Congress has been
promoting rootless leaders," a sitting Congress councillor told
IANS, requesting anonymity.
Defending the party's choice of candidates, Chandigarh Territorial
Congress Committee president B.B. Bahl said: "We have given
representation to different sections."
"The list has been approved by Congress president Sonia Gandhi and
general secretary Rahul Gandhi," he said.
Bahl did not elaborate on why the sitting mayor and the senior
deputy mayor were not fielded this time.
Congress sources said that the mayor was inclined to contest from
ward number 18 this time but the party preferred Davinder Singh
Babla, a loyalist of union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan
Kumar Bansal, who is the Chandigarh MP, on the ward.
Babla, a controversial leader, was arrested by police two years
ago on corruption charges during his tenure as Chandigarh's market
committee chief.
Bansal's loyalists have bagged a majority of the Congress tickets
this time, sources said.
Former mayor Anu Chatrath, who is the councillor from ward number
two, is the only woman candidate of the Congress contesting a seat
not reserved for women. The Congress has fielded 10 women
candidates this time.
According to sources, party leaders have ensured that tickets for
the reserved category and some other seats go to their relatives.
Sitting councillor Vijay Singh Rana has got the ticket for his
mother, Rana Kashmiri Devi.
While 26 councillors are elected for a five-year term, nine
councillors are nominated by the union territory administrator.
The Chandigarh MP is also a part of the corporation.
(Jaideep Sarin
can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)
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