Chandigarh: 5 BJP faces among six new members in advisory council
Nearly six months after UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria reconstituted the administrator's advisory council (AAC), leaving out several key figures of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the UT administration on Wednesday inducted six new members – five of whom are senior BJP leaders.
The move is being seen as a bid to placate the local BJP unit, who had cried foul after the council's reconstitution in December, stating that only those having connections with the new local leadership had been considered while those who had been working for the city and party for years, had been left out.
Among those who have now been included in the 54-member council are former MP and additional solicitor general of India Satya Pal Jain, senior BJP leaders Sanjay Tandon and Davesh Moudgil – all of whom are making a comeback.
Apart from that former Chandigarh mayors Anup Gupta and Gian Chand Gupta have also been given a berth.
Senior leaders Arun Sood and Vineet Joshi, however, have been left out again.
Ex-Cong MP Bansal dropped
The sixth new member is Dr Ravinder Nath, a resident of Dadumajra Colony. Surprisingly, senior Congress leader and former MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, who had been part of the council for several years, has been dropped this time.
The council, which advises the administration on development issues and policy matters, includes personalities from various professional fields. It serves for a period of two years. During the December 2024 reconstitution, its strength was brought down to 54, from 60 earlier. The present council's term started on January 1, 2025, and will end on December 31, 2026. So far, the council has met only once – on February 4 this year, when the city's traffic woes, encroachment issues, health infrastructure, and need-based changes in Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) houses, were discussed.
AAP alleges political favouritism
Meanwhile, AAP's Chandigarh unit president Vijaypal Singh questioned the induction of saffron party leaders, asking whether the city's administration was being run from the official Secretariat or Kamalam, the BJP's party office in Sector 33, Chandigarh. 'It seems the administration is no longer functioning independently. The inclusion of select BJP leaders in the supplementary list of the advisory committee reflects blatant political favouritism. It raises doubts about the autonomy of the bureaucracy and suggests that administrative decisions are being heavily influenced, if not dictated, by the BJP's political agenda,' he said.
Saffron party leaders seeks greater representation to Punjab
Punjab BJP leader and ex-bureaucrat Jagmohan Singh Raju wrote to UT administrator Gulab Chand Kataria, urging for greater representation to Punjab. 'Chandigarh being the capital of the state Punjab, has a major stake in the development and policy matters of the city. Sadly, in the advisory council, there is no representation from Punjab. I would therefore respectfully urge you to kindly consider the inclusion of a higher number of representatives from Punjab in the council,' he wrote.
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