Panchkula, April 26 -- Just weeks before the municipal corporation elections, former Panchkula mayor Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday, dealing a major blow to the Congress party.

Ahluwalia, who served as the Panchkula mayor from 2013-18, said she was dissatisfied with the grand old party's working and felt she could not continue serving the people effectively while remaining in it. She had submitted her resignation to Haryana Pradesh Congress Committee (HPCC) president Rao Narender Singh on Friday.

Ahluwalia, who lost the 2020 mayoral elections by a margin of 2,047 votes, further accused senior Congress leader and Panchkula MLA Chander Mohan of working against her.

In her two-page reply to a sh...