Balkar Sandhu is Ludhiana mayor, Malhotra his deputy
The new mayor belongs to Ravneet Bittu and Ashu group; SAD authorises party chief Sukhbir Badal to name leader of opposition in House
LUDHIANA : Four-time councillor Balkar Singh Sandhu, 63, was on Monday unanimously elected as the sixth mayor of the Ludhiana municipal corporation. Sham Sunder Malhotra was elected senior deputy mayor and Sarabjit Kaur deputy mayor.
Earlier, divisional commissioner VK Meena administered the oath to the newly elected councillors.
The elections to the MC were held on February 24 and the results were declared on February 27. The Congress has 62 councillors in the 95-member House. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) won 11 seats, BJP 10, Lok Insaaf Party seven while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could manage only one seat.
Councillors Gurdeep Singh Neetu and Mamta Ashu proposed Sandhu’s name which was backed by all Congress members. Sandhu, a councillor from ward number 78, owes allegiance to MP Ravneet Bittu and MLA Bharat Bhushan Ashu group. District Congress chief Gurpreet Gogi, Jai Prakash and Pal Singh Grewal were also in the race for the coveted post.
In his last tenure as a councillor, Sandhu was member of the MC’S finance and contracts committee and also chairman of the opposition group in the House. Both Malhotra and Kaur are twotime councillors.
Akali Dal district chief Ranjit Singh Dhillon said party president Sukhbir Singh Badal has been authorised to appoint the leader of opposition in the House.