Outgoing Jalandhar’s BJP mayor opts out of race

JALANDHAR: While outgoing Jalandhar BJP mayor Sunil Jyoti has not sought ticket this time, the party has also not considered his son, who had applied for the same for the municipal corporation elections. The BJP has instead fielded a former councillor and critic of Jyoti.
The SAD has already dropped its former deputy mayor Arvinder Kaur Oberoi and only former senior deputy mayor Kamaljit Ingh Bhatia is in the fray through proxy as his wife has been fielded by the Akalis.Bhatia was also Jyoti’s bête noire.
Jyoti’s son Raghav Jyoti had applied for the BJP ticket but party has picked up Krishan ‘Minta’ Kochhar in his place. Minta had been openly criticizing Jyoti’s style of functioning.
Meanwhile, Oberoi and her husband Kuldeep Singh Oberoi, who is also a former councillor, have filed nominations as Independent candidates from ward numbers 50 and 51, respectively. Earlier, the SAD had given ticket to Arvinder but replaced her on Tuesday with Balwinder Kaur Bhatia, a new face, after a section of local party leaders and workers opposed her candidature.
Oberoi has termed it as back stabbing. The couple was welcomed back in SAD fold only a few days ago after they had supported the AAP in assembly elections held earlier this year. In fact they were invited back in the SAD by former minister Ajit Singh Kohar, who had even visited their house to ask them to rejoin the party even as the BJP had opposed the move accusing them of ditching the alliance in assembly election resulting in loss to BJP candidate Manoranjan Kalia from Jalandhar Central constituency.
According to sources, by dropping Arvinder the SAD has tried to please Kalia as well as the leaders, who were had been opposing the couple.
BJP drops 2 sitting councillors
The BJP has dropped two of its sitting councillors. Two-time councillor Varinder Sharma has been replaced with new face Himanshu Sharma while Sulekha Bhagat has been replaced with Rupali Bhagat. It is learnt that the new candidates were given tickets at state BJP president Vijay Sampla’s behest.
Cong replaces candidate after nomination
the Congress replaced one of its candidates on the last day of nomination when he had already filed his papers. Vipin Kumar, who had become a councillor in the previous term as an Independent candidate, was brought in the Congress fold just before the 2017 assembly polls. He was given ticket from ward No 32.
However, on Wednesday Congress replaced him with Sucha Singh. Vipin later reached the residence of Jalandhar MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary to protest against the move. He said he had filed his nomination papers when his ticket was cancelled. He claimed that MP Chaudhary and Jalandhar MLAs Sushil Rinku, Rajinder Beri and Pargat Singh had invited him to join the Congress before assembly polls. “The party got votes due to my influence and now after after giving me ticket i have been back stabbed,” he said while blaming Chaudhary and Rinku for his replacement with Sucha Singh.
In another development at the eleventh hour, the Congress on Tuesday late evening welcomed former BJP councillor Sunanda Malhotra and on Wednesday announced her candidature from ward No 45. While the party had announced candidates from 79 wards by Tuesday evening, announcement of candidate for ward No 45 was kept on hold.