Dozens from Cong apply for Pkl MC mayor post

Panchkula: About a dozen Congress leaders have applied for the party's nomination for the post of Panchkula mayor, while 250 applicants have sought tickets for councillor positions across the 20 wards. Thursday was the last day for submitting applications.Prominent aspirants for the mayoral ticket include Haryana Congress Mahila chief Sudha Bhardwaj, former MC chairman Ravinder Rawal, former MC president Manveer Kaur Gill, Congress Seva Dal leader Sunita Sharma and advocate Raj Singh Chauhan. Outgoing councillors Salim Dabkouri and Akshay Chaudhary also filed their applications for the mayoral post.The district unit received a steady flow of applications for councillor tickets, with outgoing councillors, former councillors and several party leaders among the 250 applicants.Congress district president Sanjay Chauhan confirmed the numbers, saying the response has been strong. All applications will now be forwarded to the Pradesh Congress Committee for scrutiny. Field-level feedback will be taken before the final list is prepared.The final decision will be made by a five-member election committee comprising former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, state party president Rao Narender Singh, MP Varun Chaudhary, MLA Chandermohan and district president Sanjay Chauhan.The term of the BJP-led MC ended last month, and elections are expected in April, though the schedule has not yet been announced. A petition on the recent ward delimitation, filed by the Congress, is pending before the Punjab and Haryana high court.This time, the contest is set to widen, with both AAP and INLD announcing that they will contest the elections on party symbols.In the previous mayoral election, BJP's Kulbhushan Goyal defeated Congress candidate Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia by 2,057 votes. The BJP secured a majority in the 20-member House with 11 seats, alongside its then ally, the Jannayak Janata Party. Congress won seven seats, while two seats went to Independents.