It’s Tewari vs Tandon in Chandigarh, Congress decides

Ending speculation over the candidature from the lone Chandigarh parliamentary seat, the Congress leadership on Saturday decided to pit Anandpur Sahib sitting MP and lawyer Manish Tewari against BJP’s Sanjay Tandon.

The Congress’ central election committee in a meeting held in Delhi announced Tewari’s candidature, along with 15 other candidates.

Tewari, former Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal and Chandigarh Congress president Harmohinder Singh Lucky have been vying for the party ticket from Chandigarh.

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Sources said the demand for a “new face” from within the local unit for Chandigarh made the party leadership decide in favour of Tewari over Bansal against arch-rival BJP, which too preferred first-timer Tandon over its sitting MP Kirron Kher.

According to the INDIA bloc seat deal, the Aam Aadmi Party fielded its candidate in the Chandigarh mayoral elections, leaving the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat for the Congress. Thus, Tewari will be the joint candidate for the Congress and the AAP.

He finally got the party ticket from Chandigarh which he had been trying since 2009. Tewari told The Sunday Express, “I would, of course, like to thank Pawan Bansal ji, our former minister and former MP for long decades from Chandigarh. I will personally go and seek his guidance, support and blessings, and try to take forward the good work he has done for the City Beautiful.”

“I would also like to thank Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and….colleagues in Punjab who I have had the honour of working with over the past 43 years of my political career,” Tewari said.

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“And this is an opportunity given to me to serve my birthplace. I will make it worthwhile,” he said.

Born and brought up in Chandigarh, Tewari, 58, did his schooling at St. John’s High School in Sector 26, BA (Economics) from DAV College (Panjab University), Chandigarh, and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Delhi.

Tewari is a distinguished senior fellow of the Atlantic Council, one of the most prestigious global think-tanks based in Washington DC. His mother Late Amrit Tewari was a former Dean of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGIMER) and a nominated councillor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. His father VN Tewari was a professor at Panjab University.

Even in the 2009 parliamentary elections, Tewari expressed his willingness to contest from Chandigarh but the party fielded him from Ludhiana. And, he won the seat, defeating Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate Gurcharan Singh Galib. Then again in 2019, he expressed his intent to fight from Chandigarh, but he was fielded from Anandpur Sahib and he defeated SAD’s Prem Singh Chandumajra.

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Tewari’s supporters and the local Congress chief have been pressing the party for “a new face from Chandigarh as Bansal lost twice in the last two Lok Sabha elections”. Tewari’s supporters even said Bansal had contested eight Lok Sabha elections from Chandigarh and people now want a change. BJP’s Kirron Kher defeated Bansal twice in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

During a meeting with the party’s central leadership on March 19, Lucky had sought a “fresh candidate” from Chandigarh.

Chander Mukhi Sharma, AAP leader and a childhood friend of Tewari, said “The connection Tewari has with Chandigarh residents is something that no other leader can have as his family was among the original settlers of the city.”

“We had worked together for NSUI in the 1980s. We were joint secretaries. He was the elected president of DAV College Students’ Union and connected with the youth so well,” Sharma said. In 1998, Tewari became the president of the Indian Youth Congress.

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A national-level swimmer

A national-level swimmer, Tewari’s friends said, he (Tewari) led the Panjab University team in swimming and water polo. Besides, he would win declamation contests because he was a good orator. “He knows every corner of the city. He loved cycling in Chandigarh and would speak making the city beautiful. His father was a professor at Panjab University and his mother was a PGI professor. So, he has seen the city growing. We can say his family was among the original settlers in the city and had seen Chandigarh growing,” Sharma said.

ALSO READ | Why BJP has dropped Kirron Kher in Chandigarh, opted for a local face

“We would love hanging around the Students’ Centre of the university and Mehfil in Sector 17 (owned by Harmohan Dhawan),” he recalled when asked about their favourite places in the city.

Tewari’s father was shot dead by militants

VN Tewari, who was nominated as a member of the Rajya Sabha in 1982, was shot dead by militants in 1984 during a morning walk in Sector 24 here. Manish was 19 then.

Tewari’s mother Dr Amrit Tewari died of a cardiac arrest in 2018. His maternal grandfather Sardar Tirath Singh was a minister in the Congress government in Punjab.

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Despite being the MP from Anandpur Sahib, Tewari would allocate small amounts from his MPLAD funds for the issues faced by Chandigarh residents whenever they approached him.

The Union Territory of Chandigarh, which will vote on June 1, has 6,47,291 registered voters, including 3,35,060 male, 3,12,198 female and 33 third-gender voters. Of the total, 15,006 are first-time voters, aged 18 and 19, while 1,03,146 are aged 60 or above, as per the electoral list for 2024.