CHANDIGARH: A rebellion broke out in BJP on Monday after councillor Chandrawati Shukla threw her hat in the ring for the seat of the mayor despite the party choosing the candidatures of Ravi Kant Sharma for the top post, Mahesh Inder Singh Sidhu for senior deputy mayor and Farmila Devi for deputy mayor in the mayoral elections to be held on January 8.
As the three official candidates filed their nomination papers after the announcement in the presence of Chandigarh and Punjab in-charge and MP Dushyant Gautam, Chandrawati reached the secretary’s office at the MC office in Sector 17. BJP members, councillors and the top brass tried to pacify Shukla and her husband Pappu Shukla, a senior leader, taking them to the chief engineer’s room. The couple refused to yield. And, Chandrawati came out to file her nomination papers.
The two even criticised BJP, going on a tirade against the party in front of the media in the MC office parking. Sniffing an opportunity, Congress mayor candidate Devinder Singh Babla and deputy mayor contender Satish Kainth seconded and proposed Chandrawati’s name and signed the documents before the secretary. Later, Congress announced full support to the BJP rebel. If that was not enough, more drama was in store for BJP.
Councillor Bharat Kumar threatened to resign from the party. While stepping out of the MC building, Bharat said, “BJP is supporting and giving posts to people who have backstabbed the party and are involved in weakening it. It is quite shocking. I am going to resign from BJP,” Bharat said.
Sources in BJP said most councillors are not happy with Sharma. “He is already senior deputy mayor. Making him the mayoral candidate is wrong. One person should not get chances again and again,” a senior BJP councillor said.
In a damage control exercise, Chandigarh BJP president Arun Sood visited the house of the rebel BJP councillor and asked others to convince Chandrawati and her husband to see reason and not go against the party line.