Filing of nominations in Chandigarh, Punjab begins today

Election activities are set to pick up steam in Chandigarh and Mohali from today, with the start of filing of nominations in both Lok Sabha constituencies.
As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), candidates can file their nominations till May 14 and withdrawal of candidature can be done on May 17 after scrutiny of papers (see box for key dates).
Chandigarh is set to witness a two-cornered contest with Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Sanjay Tandon pitted against Congress’ Manish Tewari. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is supporting the Congress candidate as part of its INDIA bloc tie-up. While Tewari is a two-time Member of Parliament (MP), this is Tandon’s Lok Sabha poll debut.
Both parties have banked on new candidates for the city, steering clear from its past winners — Congress’ Pawan Kumar Bansal and BJP’s Kirron Kher. The stakes are high for the Congress in Chandigarh that had lost the last two Lok Sabha elections against BJP with considerable margins.
Riding on the Narendra Modi wave in 2014, BJP’s Kirron Kher defeated four-time MP Pawan Kumar Bansal by 69,642 votes. Kher won for the second consecutive time in 2019 by a margin of roughly 46,000 votes, again defeating Bansal.
In the 14 Lok Sabha elections conducted in Chandigarh since 1967, Congress has clinched the seat on seven occasions, while BJP has won it four times. Janta Party and Janata Dal have also been victorious once each. Even the Bharatiya Jana Sangh triumphed in the constituency’s inaugural elections in 1967.
Four-cornered contest in Mohali
Mohali is headed for a multi-cornered contest with the emergence of the AAP, and the BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) parting ways. The district is divided into two parliamentary constituencies — Patiala, comprising Dera Bassi and Zirakpur, and Anandpur Sahib, comprising Mohali town and Kharar.
While the Congress has given ticket to former Sangrur MP Vijay Inder Singla from Anandpur Sahib, it has fielded former AAP MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi from Patiala. The SAD has fielded Prem Singh Chandumajra from Anandpur Sahib and former Dera Bassi MLA NK Sharma, who is also the party’s treasurer, from Patiala. The AAP is relying on its state chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang for Anandpur Sahib and banking on state health minister Balbir Singh in Patiala. The BJP has fielded four-time Patiala Congress MP and former Union minister Preneet Kaur, who had joined the saffron party in March. The BJP is yet to announce its candidate for Anandpur Sahib. While the Anandpur Sahib candidates file their nominations in Ropar, Patiala candidates file their nominations before Patiala DC.
Outgoing Patiala MP Preneet Kaur, who was elected on a Congress ticket in 2019, had secured a lead in eight assembly segments of the constituency and got 5,32,027 votes, but she failed to do so in Dera Bassi, a SAD stronghold. Though she defeated SAD-BJP candidate Surjit Singh Rakhra by 1,62,718 votes, he led by 17,050 votes in Dera Bassi. Sitting Congress MP Manish Tewari defeated SAD’s Prem Singh Chandumajra by 46,884 votes to win the Anandpur Sahib seat. He led by 7,205 votes in Kharar and 12,652 votes in Mohali. Tewari got a total of 4,28,045 votes.