Gurugram: Shakti Rani Sharma, the Mayor of Ambala Municipal Corporation and wife of Jan Chetna Party chief and former Haryana minister Venod Sharma, officially joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Sunday. Her induction, at the BJP’s rally in Jind, was done in the presence of Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and state party president Mohan Lal Badoli. She is also the mother of Rajya Sabha MP Kartikeya Sharma.
Sharing the news of his mother’s induction into the BJP, along with photos from the event, on his official X account, Kartikeya wrote: “We sincerely thank you all for your immense support and affection on this occasion. Our family is always committed to taking Haryana’s development to new heights and continuously serving the people of the state.”
Shakti Rani Sharma’s eldest son Siddharth Vashisht, also known as Manu Sharma, was convicted in the infamous Jessica Lal murder case in Delhi and was released in June 2020.
The same year, Shakti Rani Sharma had won the Ambala Municipal Corporation elections, defeating BJP’s Vandana Sharma by 8,084 votes and becoming the first female mayor of Ambala city.
There are speculations that the BJP may field her from Ambala City, currently represented by Aseem Goyal, a minister in the Saini government.
Shakti Rani Sharma has frequently criticised Aseem Goyal for the city’s lagging development. She has accused him of obstructing projects and preventing the completion of essential work. With her entry into the BJP, Aseem Goyal’s challenges are expected to intensify.
She contested the 2014 assembly elections from Kalka as a candidate of her husband’s Jan Chetna Party. Given this, the BJP may also consider fielding her from the same constituency.
Venod Sharma was elected as a Rajya Sabha from the Congress during the Beant Singh government in Punjab in 1992, serving a six-year term until April 1998. Prior to this, he was an MLA from the Banur Assembly seat in the Patiala district of Punjab, having won the election in 1980. He also served as a Union minister in the Narasimha Rao government.
Venod Sharma won the Assembly polls in Ambala in 2005 and 2009 on a Congress ticket. However, before the 2014 elections, he left Congress to form his own Jan Chetna Party. Both he and Shakti Rani Sharma lost their respective elections.
In the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Jan Chetna Party supported the BJP. Before this, the BJP had supported Kartikeya in his successful bid for the Rajya Sabha as an Independent candidate with the party’s backing.
Jessica Lal murder case
Sharma had resigned from the Indian National Congress in 1999 after Jessica Lal, a model, was shot dead in a New Delhi bar on 30 April that year and his son Manu Sharma was booked for the crime.
He rejoined Congress in 2004 and was elected to the Haryana Vidhan Sabha in 2005, subsequently serving as a minister in Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s Congress government. However, after Manu Sharma’s acquittal in 2006 sparked nationwide outrage and a media sting revealed witness tampering, Venod was compelled to resign from the Cabinet in October that year.
The case was reopened, and Manu Sharma was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment on 20 December, 2006. He was released from Tihar Jail by the Delhi Lieutenant Governor on 2 June, 2020, for good behaviour.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: 3 mighty Lals shaped Haryana politics for decades. How BJP has co-opted their descendants