As per details available of these 105 candidates, Nikita Kaushal of the Aam Aadmi Party from Ward number 6 is a Chartered Accountant, while Ravi Kant Sharma of the Bharatiya Janata Party in fray from Ward number 17 had an MBA degree. Two people who have allegedly never gone to school, 14 school dropouts, 18 matric passed, 19 who have passed Class 12, 21 graduates, 12 law graduates, and 14 master degree holders will be among 105 prime faces representing three major political parties — the AAP, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress —who will be in fray for the Chandigarh civic body polls that is scheduled to be held on December 24.
As per details available of these 105 candidates, Nikita Kaushal of the Aam Aadmi Party from Ward number 6 is a Chartered Accountant, while Ravi Kant Sharma of the Bharatiya Janata Party in fray from Ward number 17 had an MBA degree.
A closer look at the list also tells us that three candidates from each party have diplomas in vocational courses — like Diploma in Hair and Skin Care and Diploma in Textile Chemistry.
As per the scrutiny of documents of candidates submitted with the State Election Commission, two Aam Aadmi Party candidates — Poonam Kumari (Ward number 16) and Vikram Pudhir (Ward number 30) — have marked their educational qualification as ‘Nil’.
Vikram Pudhir, a taxi driver by profession, told The Indian Express that he had actually studied till Class 5, but did not have any proof of the same.
“I do not have the school certificate for Class 5, which I completed from Garhwal, in Uttarakhand. So, I preferred to mention ‘Nil’ in the educational qualification column,” Pudhir said.
Aam Aadmi Party candidate Poonam Kumari’s husband, on the other hand, said that she had attended primary classes in Government Primary School in Dadumajra village but had dropped out without collecting her certificate.
As per the list, Congress has fielded five people who are matric pass, while the AAP fielding 6 and the BJP giving tickets to 7 such candidates.
Six Congress candidates, five Bharatiya Janata Party candidates and three AAP candidates have declared that they dropped out of school between Class 7 and Class 9.
The highest number of graduate candidates – ten – have been fielded from the Congress, followed by the AAP who have fielded six such candidates and the Bharatiya Janata Party who have given tickets to five.
Of the 14 candidates who said they had completed their Masters degree, six belonged to the AAP, five to the Congress and three to the BJP.
Of the 12 law graduates who have thrown their hats in the ring, five are from the Bharatiya Janata Party — Maheshinder Singh from Ward number 2, Anup Gupta from Ward number 11, Saurabh Joshi from Ward number 12, Sachin Kumar from Ward number 24, and Jasmandpreet Singh from Ward number 32.
The Congress has four law graduates — HS Lucky (Ward number 2), Deipa Asdhir Dubey (ward number 12), Mohan Singh Rana (Ward number 25), and Abhishek Sharma Shanky (Ward number 32) – while the AAP has three, Chander Mukhi Sharma (Ward number 13), Yogesh Dhingra (Ward number 25), and Heera Lal Kundra (Ward number 24).
A total of 214 candidates are in the poll fray for the December 24 elections, of which 109 are idenpendents or from parties like Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Shiromani Akali Dal.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
