Kin of BJP bigwigs in race for Karnal mayoral ticket

Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, November 30

All eyes are on the meeting of the BJP state election committee to be held in Delhi on December 1 as the committee will announce the mayoral candidate for all five Municipal Corporations where elections are scheduled on December 16.

Before this meeting, the bigwigs of the party in Karnal, who want to field their wives or daughters-in-law as mayoral candidate, have started lobbying to get ticket for them. They are not only approaching party office-bearers but also RSS leaders.

Karnal seat is reserved for woman candidates and the number of possible candidates is increasing day by day.

Former Mayor Renu Bala Gupta, former district president Ashok Sukhija’s daughter-in-law Dipti Sukhija, former Senior Deputy Mayor Krishan Garg’s daughter-in-law Monika Garg, BJP district president Jagmohan Anand’s wife Rekha Anand, former councillors Sujata Arora and Sonia Pandit and former Industry Minister Shashipal Mehta’s daughter-in-law Sanchita Mehta were already in the race.

Liberty Group MD Shami Bansal has now forwarded the name of his wife Anjali Bansal for the Mayor’s post instead of his daughter-in-law Himani Bansal’s name. Now, Eden hotel’s owner Dr Manoj Gupta’s wife Ritika Gupta has also joined the race. She appeared for an interview before Rameshwar Chauhan, chairman, HARCOFED, and district convener for the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) elections, yesterday.

Rekha Anand did not come for the interview, but her husband said that they would contest if the party gave them a chance.

Party sources claim that party big-shots are showing trust on their wives or daughters-in-law while the district BJP has several dedicated women party workers who are known to the public.

Sources claim that the party is busy striking a caste balance as the sitting MP from Karnal Ashwini Chopra and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who is an MLA from Karnal Assembly seat, are from the Punjabi community.

The party may pick a face from the Aggarwal community to make a caste balance, but fearing poaching and revolt within the party cadre, the party is exploring all options as the BJP candidate will have to contest against former deputy Mayor Manoj Wadhwa’s wife Asha Wadhwa who belongs to the Punjabi community.

Manoj had contested the last Assembly elections against the CM from Karnal. Asha has fielded herself as an Independent candidate so far and is busy in her campaigning while the BJP is yet to announce its candidate.