Chandigarh: BJP to crack the whip on 7 local leaders post election debacle
BJP decides to take action against seven local leaders who stayed away from Sanjay Tandon’s campaign in Chandigarh and engaged in anti-party activities
In the aftermath of BJP candidate Sanjay Tandon’s defeat to Congress’ Manish Tewari by a narrow margin of 2,504 votes, the BJP on Thursday decided to take action against seven local BJP leaders who stayed away from the campaign and engaged in anti-party activities.
Shaken by the unexpected setback, the party convened a meeting at the BJP office in Sector 33 to introspect on the loss.
Chaired by local unit president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, the meeting was also attended by six vice-presidents and a general secretary, who advocated for strict action against those responsible for the electoral fiasco by not joining Tandon’s campaign and instead supporting his Congress rival, Manish Tewari.
According to sources in the party, a list of seven such leaders — most of them ticket aspirants themselves — had already been prepared and a decisive action will be taken within a week, as Malhotra had left for Delhi to attend the BJP parliamentary board meeting and will be there for three days.
“We all want those who are responsible for the poll debacle to face the music. Even the senior leaders who stayed away from the campaign should face action,” said Poonam Sharma, vice-president, Chandigarh BJP, who attended the meeting.
Another leader, who attended the meeting, but did not want to be named, laid bare the party’s shortcomings, citing ignored grievances and mismanagement as contributing factors to the defeat.
Additionally, the UT administration did not act on the complaints of BJP leaders and instead supported Congress candidate Manish Tewari, the leader alleged, adding that mandal pradhans’ inexperience in handling high-stakes elections further contributed to the defeat.
Despite repeated attempts, Malhotra could not be contacted for comments.
Eyeing a hat-trick following successive wins in 2014 and 2019, the BJP had fielded Tandon, a poll debutant and its former Chandigarh unit chief, after incumbent MP Kirron Kher bowed out due to health concerns.
But a more experienced Manish Tewari, a two-time MP and a former Union minister, defeated Tandon with a wafer-thin margin of 2,504 votes.
Tewari polled 2,16,657 votes against Tandon’s 2,14,153 votes in a nail-biting finish where his lead swung up and down through the counting process. The BJP also saw a dip in its vote share — from 50.64% in the 2019 general elections to 47.7% now.
