He had been patiently waiting in the wings for over a decade to get a shot at the Lok Sabha elections from Chandigarh as the BJP candidate. The wait is finally over for former Chandigarh BJP president for nearly a decade Sanjay Tandon as he has received the national party leadership’s nod to contest the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat in the polls slated for June 1, 2024.
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His name found a place in the list of nine party candidates from Chandigarh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal released on Wednesday.
He is the first candidate from a prominent political party to be named for the Chandigarh seat and will be up against a Congress candidate supported by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as per a pact between the two parties. Sanjay Tandon replaces two time party MP Kirron Kher (2014-2024), who has been under treatment for cancer these past few years and was increasingly becoming unpopular because of her long absence from Chandigarh.
Son of former Punjab BJP stalwart and founding member of the Jan Sangh (late) Balramji Dass Tandon, who remained a deputy CM/minister in successive SAD-Jan Sangh/BJP coalition governments, six time MLA and governor of Chhattisgarh, the 60 years old Sanjay Tandon, besides being a seasoned politician is a chartered accountant and cost accountant by profession. He is also member of the National Council of the BJP and co-incharge of party affairs in Himachal Pradesh.
Tandon became active in Chandigarh BJP in 1995 when he was made member of its executive committee. In 2007, he took over as the General Secretary of BJP Chandigarh. He was made incharge of the Chandigarh Lok Sabha elections during 2009 when Satya Pal Jain contested as the party candidate. Thereafter, he was elected Chandigarh BJP president in 2010 and re-elected in 2013, a post he held till 2019.
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Over a span of over three decades Sanjay Tandon has built the Competent Group which is into several verticals like accounting, auditing, consulting, stock broking, commodity broking, software products, and co-working spaces. His family is known to conduct various social service activities through two NGOs Competent Foundation and Balramji Dass Tandon Charitable Foundation.
Sanjay Tandon is also deeply into cricket administration and is currently the president of the UT Cricket Association, Chandigarh, which is an associate member of the national cricket body, the BCCI.
At various times, he has also remained director of State Bank of Hyderabad, National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) and Gail India Limited.
He is married to Priya, daughter of former Chief Justice of India (late) Justice MM Punchhi, and they have three sons.
