Chandigarh: The Congress’ two-time MP from Punjab, Manish Tewari, 58, won the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat defeating BJP city president Sanjay Tandon, 60, by a thin margin of about 2,500 votes, here on Tuesday.
Tandon was given the BJP ticket after party’s incumbent MP Kirron Kher had opted out of the race on health issues.
Tewari was given the party ticket ignoring the party's four-time MP from Chandigarh, Pawan Kumar Bansal, 75.
Tewari had the backing of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as the two were allies of the INDIA bloc.
Bansal had remained an MP from Chandigarh seat four times – in the 10th, 13th, 14th and 15th Lok Sabha- had, however, lost to BJP’s Kirron Kher in 2014 and 2019. BJP thus lost the chance to hit the hat-trick.
Tewari had been an MP from Ludhiana from 2009-2014. He had done his schooling from Chandigarh’s St John’s High School and higher education from Panjab University.
His father Dr V N Tewari, a professor at Panjab University, was assassinated by terrorists at their home in Chandigarh in 1984. His mother, Dr Amrit Tewari, a Padma Shri recipient, was a former Dean in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), here.
Tandon, 60, has been BJP city president for about a decade from 2010. His father Balram Das Tandon, a veteran BJP leader in Punjab.
The Chandigarh seat has been won by Congress seven times and BJP, four times in the 14 parliamentary elections held since 1967. For the remaining three terms, BJP, Janata Party and Janata Dal have also won from this seat.
The BJP was in poor light following the infamous ``rigging during mayoral polls’’ earlier this year following which the apex court had severely pulled up the presiding officer Anil Masih, a former BJP’s nominated councilor. The top court had held that what happened in Chandigarh mayoral elections ``was a mockery of democracy and they would not allow democracy to be murdered like this''.
