With limited resources, they vow to give tough fight to heavyweights

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, December 19

Though candidates from the BJP and the Congress have been generating maximum interest and stealing the limelight in the race for the Mayor’s post in the forthcoming Panchkula Municipal Corporation elections, there are several others in the contest, including two independents, who vow to give a tough fight to heavyweights with limited resources and funds.

Apart from BJP’s Kulbhushan Goyal, Congress’ Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia, Anil Pangotra from the Bahujan Samaj Party, Sudershan Bansal from the Janral Samaj Party (unrecognised party), Padam Garg (Independent) and Shyam Singh Negi (Independent) are also in the fray for the Mayor’s post.

Anil Pangotra

Anil Pangotra, who once served as the political secretary to former Deputy Chief Minister Chander Mohan, was expecting a ticket from the Congress in return of his “long-term association and service to the party”. As things panned out, Pangotra failed to get the “respect from the Congress”.

He says the grand old party’s “bhai bhatijawad” (nepotism) culture compels him to approach the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) for the ticket.

He says he has been raising several civic issues and had even gone on a hunger strike for shifting the dumping ground away from the residential area and enhancement of HSVP plots in the past few years, but the Congress sidelined and denied him the ticket. Terming the Ahluwalia’s candidature ‘self-destructive’, the 46-year-old businessman says anti-party campaign by the disgruntled leaders’ will sink Congress’ ship, it doesn’t need the BJP.

Shyam Singh Negi

An accountant by profession, Shyam Singh Negi says he left his regular job 1.5 years ago in the hope of a councillor ticket from the BJP and had been actively working for the party since then.

Expressing his anguish over the BJP’s “superficial and undemocratic” way of distributing ticket, Negi says the BJP had sought names from its workers just to show off. The party had already finalised the names of candidates in every ward for the Panchkula MC elections.

“I made them aware of my influence in Ward No. 8 and high prospects of winning the elections. I was sure of my victory and just wanted to contest on the BJP symbol. The party, however, decided not to chose me. Still, I abide by the decision as a true worker of the party. But my family and community insisted that I should contest the elections. So, I filed papers as an Independent candidate,” he says. “I may not able to defeat the BJP candidate, but I will teach them a lesson,” says Negi, who hails from Uttarakhand.

Sudershan Bansal

A candidate of the Janral Samaj Party (unrecognised), Sudershan Bansal is the second woman mayoral nominee among six candidates and a retired professional from the post of the deputy nursing superintendent, PGI, Chandigarh. Her vision for the city includes revamping potholed-ridden and damaged roads, cleanliness, time-bound delivery of government services with zero corruption and checking stray dogs/cattle menace.

On a question of competing with big parties such as the BJP and the Congress, she replies, “It doesn’t mean that if our party is small, we can’t compete with them. Though national parties have lots of funds to campaign, we will try to give them a tough fight with limited resources.”

Padam Garg

Contesting the elections with a virtual support from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a city-based NGO, Panchkula Vikas Manch, Padam Garg says his main opponent is the BJP. “Our local MLA and Haryana Speaker Gian Chand Gupta has become the Chief Minister’s stooge. He is stuck in the darkness. He doesn’t even know who is asking for bribe in his name,” he says. He says he will find an alternative to Ashiana flats for the rehabilitation of the poor and give permission to vendors for business during evening hours, if he was elected as the Mayor.