Asha Jaswal to withdraw from mayoral race tomorrow

Four days after a rebellion in the BJP unit here, outgoing Mayor and senior party leader Asha Kumari Jaswal, who had decided to contest the January 9 mayoral polls as an Independent, has decided to withdraw her nomination.
Jaswal, who was against her party fielding Davesh Moudgil for the mayor's post, was mollified after her meeting with senior BJP leader Ram Lal yesterday.
"Asha ji will withdraw her nomination tomorrow," Chandigarh BJP president Sanjay Tandon told PTI over phone today.
He said that he has called a meeting of all the councillors of the party here tomorrow.
The Chandigarh unit of the BJP had faced a revolt after the outgoing mayor had filed nomination papers as an Independent candidate against the party's official nominee earlier this week.

The BJP leadership had announced the name of Moudgil, who is considered to be close to former MP Satya Pal Jain, ignoring the camp led by Tandon.

The saffron party has an overwhelming majority in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (CMC) House and the election is scheduled to be held on January 9.
Moudgil had filed his nomination at the CMC's office here while Jaswal, who is also the BJP Mahila Morcha's vice president, filed her's for the post as an Independent.
Jaswal had earlier maintained that out of the 20 BJP members in the CMC House, 14 were not in favour of the present candidature.

She had said, "Moudgil has been going against the party's interests at various forums. There are other issues involving him".
Tandon, today, said that Moudgil has given him a detailed letter, the contents of which he would not like to share.
The city BJP chief, however, said that Moudgil's response pertains to the reservations which some of the councillors have raised against him.