Surinder Shinda, Parveen Saini front-runners for Mayoral post

Sanjiv Kumar Bakshi

Hoshiarpur, February 20

In Hoshiarpur city, Congress set a record by winning 41 of the 50 wards in the Municipal Corporation election. Congress has won a majority of the seats almost after four decades. According to party sources, it will be Industries and Commerce Minister Sunder Sham Arora who will decide on the name of mayor from the city. Though Arora is yet to open his cards, they said. The Minister said, “It’s the prerogative of the newly-elected councillors to elect their leader and we will follow the directions of high command.”

One of the front runners for the Mayoral post seems to be seniormost Congress councillor Surinder Shinda (ward number 18), who has been elected for the fourth time.

The other contender is five time councillor from ward number 1, Parveen Saini. She was first elected in 1998 on BJP ticket and then repeated her success as BJP councillor in 2003. Then she switched to Congress in 2009 and got elected again. In 2015, she became councillor for the fourth time and this was her fifth win. If the Mayoral post gets reserved for woman, she could be the only choice on the basis of seniority.

Another name which is doing rounds is the first time councillor Vijay Aggarwal from ward number 34. He had promised the voters of his area that he was contesting the poll for Mayoral post. He is from sound financial background.

Kuldeep Nanda, president of the District Congress Committee, said, “We cannot decide anything at our end. We will follow the high command orders. The final call will be taken after calling a meeting of all winning candidates”. Party’s big leaders will be meeting in a day or two to consider the ‘suitability’ of the Mayoral candidate keeping in view the 2022 Assembly elections, he said.