BJP Surprises with Chandigarh Candidate Choice: Sanjay Tandon to Contest Lok Sabha Seat
Several sections of the Chandigarh BJP were taken aback by the news of Sanjay Tandon’s candidacy.
New Delhi: 10 April 2024
On Wednesday, the BJP selected Sanjay Tandon to run for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, replacing two-term sitting member of parliament Kirron Kher.
A BJP leader from Punjab and the son of former Chattisgarh governor Balramji Das Tandon, Sanjay Tandon is sixty years old. In addition, the Sector 18 inhabitant served as the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party Chandigarh for the longest period of time, from 2010 to 2019.
The news surprised some sections of the Chandigarh BJP, who had been working hard to field a “local candidate” and had included party stalwarts Sanjay Tandon, former president Arun Sood, and a few others. Some even objected to Tandon, who is the Himachal Pradesh BJP’s co-incharge, being selected as the contender for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat. It’s interesting that Kirron Kher’s name wasn’t even sent by the local committee.
Tandon had been attempting to secure a ticket for a while, but in the Lok Sabha election of 2014, the BJP fielded actor-turned-politician Kirron Kher as a parachute candidate in Chandigarh because of internal factionalism. Even though Kher has insisted that she is from Chandigarh and has a home in Sector 8, she has consistently been referred to as a “outsider” by BJP insider organizations.
In the 2014 general election, Kher received 1.91 lakh votes, defeating Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal, who received 1.21 lakh votes. Gul Panag, the AAP candidate, scored well in Chandigarh, receiving 1.08 lakh votes.
Kirron Kher, who was again nominated by the BJP in 2019, secured 2.31 lakh votes, while Bansal received 1.84 lakh votes. The Aam Aadmi Party’s vote share in 2019 dropped dramatically to just 3% of the total, or 13,781 votes, which went to Harmohan Dhawan.
Pawan Bansal served three terms in a row as the Lok Sabha representative for Chandigarh before to 2014.
June 1 is the day of voting for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, while June 4 is the date of the vote count.
