Ambala MC polls: Former Congressmen to debut own parties

The announcement of the poll schedule for the Ambala municipal corporation (MC) on Thursday has now officially kicked-off the election process here in the city that is waiting for its corporation since 2018 after the session of the last House ended in June same year.

The election is likely to be multi-cornered as besides BJP-JJP and Congress, two new parties led by two former ministers—Venod Sharma’s Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJP) and Nirmal Singh’s Haryana Democratic Front (HDF)—have also announced to debut on all the seats. Both Sharma and Singh were previously with Congress.

Congress to contest on party symbol

Congress that was in majority in the last House on Thursday decided to contest on the party symbol. In an official communication, Congress state president Kumari Selja said that the party had come to that decision after discussions with state in-charge Vivek Bansal, leader of opposition BS Hooda and other senior leaders.

Speaking to the Hindustan Times, Selja said, “I will chair a meeting of the consultative panel in Chandigarh on Friday and soon we will invite names of those interested to contest for wards and the mayor seat.”

The party had won from nine of 11 wards in the last term, with its own mayor Ramesh Mal, who switched over to the BJP before 2019 assembly elections.

BJP names Karnal mayor co-incharge

The ruling BJP’s state president OP Dhankar on Thursday appointed Karnal mayor Renu Bala Gupta as the co-incharge for the polls. On Wednesday, Ambala in-charge and former state chief Subhash Barala chaired his first meeting of party workers.

He had told the HT that there could be a coalition between BJP and JJP and that he had received six applications for the mayor seat (reserved for women).

BJP has been pitching on the development works undertaken by two-time MLA Aseem Goel, who has been inaugurating projects in a row from last two months.

HJP, HDF new contenders

Four-time MLA Nirmal Singh’s HDF was the first party to declare its mayor candidate, Amisha Chawla, a month before the dates were declared. However, just before that, its senior leader Himmat Singh parted ways, accusing Nirmal of ditching his confidantes in the panchayat’s cooperative societies.

Front’s leader Chitra Sarwara said the party will declare a few names for the wards on Friday.

Former union minister Venod Sharma had last month declared that his HJP will fight the elections. One of the senior-most leaders in the region, he is said to be in talks with Nirmal for a possible coalition. “There are always possibilities in politics. I had met Nirmal at a marriage function and it was all personal. We’ll be soon out with our possible candidates,” said Sharma.