4-time councillor gets District Congress Committee urban chief post

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 13

Even as today’s appointment of the District Congress Committee (Urban) president and three working presidents has come on very expected lines, the party has clearly tried to give equal representation to the four urban Assembly seats falling in the district.

DCC (Urban) chief Balraj Thakur is a four-time MC councillor, who represents the Jalandhar Cantonment seat. The three working presidents — Nirmaljeet Singh Nimma, Vijay Dakoha and Harjinder Ladda — represent the Jalandhar North, Central and West seats.

Interestingly, all four of them are MC councillors or spouses of sitting councillors. Thakur represents Ward No.28, Nimma represents Ward No.6, Dakoha’s wife Bimla Rani is councillor from Ward No.13 and Ladda’s wife Balwinder Kaur is councillor from Ward No.47. The party has also tried to balance out castes with Thakur being a Hindu Rajput, Dakoha being an SC leader and Ladda representing the Backward Class community.

The president as well as the working presidents have been appointed with the due consent of the sitting MLAs of these seats. Thakur, who was the contender for the mayoral post and had also staked a claim for MLA, has been contended with the DCC president’s post on the recommendations of Education Minister Pargat Singh. Various party leaders, including Sanjay Sehgal, have been against giving dual role to party leaders, who are already serving as MC councillors.

For the DCC (Rural) posts, Darshan Singh Tahli for the post of chief has been a big surprise as the name of ex-PPCC spokesperson, IMA national vice-president and party’s Jatt face Dr Navjot Dahiya had been doing rounds for the post. A lesser known Valmik leader, he had been the vice-chairman of the Zila Parishad and hails from Tahli village of Nakodar.

A close aide of Manpreet Badal, Dr Dahiya perhaps did not get support from Pargat and ex-minister Amarjit S Samra.

Ashwan Bhalla and Ashwani Kumar have been appointed as working presidents of the DCC (rural). Bhalla, who has been district youth president, hails from Bhogpur and is a contender for the Nakodar seat.