BJP names mayoral candidates for Sonipat, Panchkula and Ambala

Chandigarh: The BJP has named its mayoral candidates for municipal corporations of Sonipat, Panchkula and Ambala. Akshita Saini, a young women leader, is the party's pick for Ambala city. From Sonipat, the party has fielded Rajiv Jain. Party loyalist Shyam Lal Bansal hasd been named the mayoral candidate from Panchkula. Notably, the saffron party has chosen to rely upon Jain for the second time in a row. He was elected as mayor during byelections held in 2024, after the then mayor was elected MLA from Sonipat Assembly constituency. Bansal, an old loyalist of BJP who unsuccessfully contested three Assembly elections from Kalka Assembly constituency, has replaced incumbent Kulbhushan Goyal. Notably, Goyal's candidature was under doubt, especially after the alleged scam of IDFC First Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank.Bansal largely comes as the choice of the party high command, and Rajya Sabha MP Rekha Sharma and local leadership were among those who were strongly betting for him. And since Congress has also fielded a candidate coming from the Saini community, that too from the rural belt, hence BJP too decided to bet upon Akshita.Akshita Saini will be replacing Seema Sachdeva, who last held the mayoral office after a byelection was necessitated following the election of then mayor, Shakti Rani Sharma, to the Haryana Assembly in the 2024 Assembly elections. Sharma represents the Kalka Assembly constituency.With this, the three mayoral polls will see a direct contest between Congress and BJP. Last week, the Congress had named Kamal Diwan from Sonipat, Sudha Bhardwaj from Panchkula and Kulwinder Kaur from Ambala Municipal Corporation.MSID: 130444030 413 |