The day the party announced Manish Tewari as its candidate from Chandigarh for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Congress leader and former BSP councillor Jannat Jahan accused city Congress president HS Lucky of bias and professional misconduct.

She alleged that 40 of her associates, including block president of Ward Number 4, have been shifted in an abrupt manner. Jahan, who was a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) councillor in 2011 and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Chandigarh in 2014, had joined the Congress in 2019.

She stated that her workers had been working with full dedication in Ward Number 4, but suddenly Lucky shifted all of them, including the block president, out of the ward.

An avid supporter of four-time Congress MP from Chandigarh Pawan Kumar Bansal, Jannat stated that she had been unfairly targeted. During a meeting of All India Congress Committee, chaired by Rajeev Shukla last month, her supporters had cheered for Bansal, which infuriated Lucky. Both Bansal and Lucky were also in the race for the party ticket.

“My supporters cheered for Bansal because Lucky’s supporters started raising slogans in his (Lucky’s) favour during that meeting. What was wrong in that? He is now settling scores by shifting so many workers in one go from Ward Number 4. These workers have been working with full dedication in areas of Indira Colony and Kishangarh for the last many years. Their shifting is totally unjustified,” she said.

Jannat also threatened to protest against Lucky if her workers were not returned their original posts.

When contacted, Lucky stated there was no issue and since elections were round the corner, many changes needed to be made.

“It’s a routine re-arrangement of posts and nothing controversial. There is so much work to be done during elections and shuffling is very routine. I had a word with Jannat Jahan and there is no such problem,” he said.