Congress to field 50% new faces, youth in Chandigarh MC elections

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 21

After a thumping victory in Mohali, the Congress is now focusing on the Municipal Corporation (MC) elections in Chandigarh. The party has decided to field new faces, especially youth, in the elections, slated to be held later this year, to take on the ruling BJP.

After formally taking over as the president of the Chandigarh Congress, Subhash Chawla said they all would have to work hard to win all 35 seats in the MC elections. Hardworking workers would be rewarded accordingly, he said.

Senior members would have their own place in the party, but nearly 50 per cent of the party ticket would be given to the youth and new faces in the MC elections, he said.

On February 9, the Congress had appointed Subhash Chawla, a former Mayor of Chandigarh, as the new president of the Chandigarh Territorial Congress Committee, replacing Pradeep Chhabra.

During the induction ceremony, former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and in-charge, Punjab and Chandigarh Congress, Harish Rawat and AICC treasurer Pawan Bansal and Punjab Cabinet Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu were present.

Presiding over the function, Rawat said he was confident that the new city president of the party would take everyone along. Congratulating Chandigarh Congress workers for the victory in the civic elections in Punjab, Rawat called upon the Chandigarh Congress that such a performance should be repeated in the MC elections in Chandigarh. “The Modi government is indulging in cruelty to farmers, due to which over 300 farmers have died,” he said.

He asked Chawla to appoint office-bearers of the local body in the next 15 days and those of the district and block level within 25 days and strengthen the party at the booth level in the next two months. He said the BJP was trying to destroy the “remarkable work done by the Congress” in the field of agriculture and other sectors. “Now, people have the opportunity to avenge the wrong done by the BJP in the forthcoming MC elections,” he said.

Rawat said he presented a bouquet of roses with thorns to the newly appointed president so that he could take out the thorns from the lives of the party workers and showered them with flowers.

Advising Chawla, Bansal said now he had the responsibility of winning the Municipal Corporation elections and for this he would have to take everyone along.

He said the policies of the Congress should reach the people. He said the excise duty on petrol and diesel was so high that their rates were continuously increasing.

In his address, Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the success achieved by the Congress in the Punjab civic body elections would be repeated in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections.

Expressing full support to Chawla, former Chandigarh Congress president Pradeep Chhabra said with the blessings of senior leaders, he had strengthened the party for six years and would continue to take the party forward.