A former Labour councillor who quit the council after being expelled by Labour has apparently now joined the Tories.
Chandni Mistry was pictured taking a selfie with Robert Jenrick in a post the Conservative leadership posted on Twitter this week, captioned: “I’ve been meeting @Conservatives members across our great nation.”
It was taken on Wednesday when Mr Jenrick addressed a meeting of the Richmond Park Conservatives.
She provoked anger amongst Brighton residents by only turning up for one council meeting in the six months after she was suspended by Labour over claims she didn’t live in Brighton – the minimum required to avoid their seats automatically being vacated.
She and her mother Bharti Gajjar, who was also suspended and subsequently expelled, claimed the full allowance for that period.
When they were first suspended, websites set up advertising Ms Gajjar’s bid to become the Labour candidate in two constituencies – South Derbyshire and Morecambe and Lunesdale – came to light. She was not selected for either seat.
In June, the far-left Workers Party of Great Britain announced it had selected Chandni’s brother Brijesh BM Gajjar as its candidate for Leicester West. He withdrew from the race soon afterwards.
Meanwhile, all three are still facing charges brought by Mr Gajjar’s wife Sumeesha Jaswal in India under its Domestic Violence Act, which Brighton and Hove News understands involves allegations of marriage fraud and abandonment.
The case is currently stalled as the court has not had any contact from the Gajjars. The latest published update is that it is trying to contact them via the UK embassy.
Brighton and Hove News contacted Ms Mistry’s lawyer Axel Landin from Bindmans in relation to this story, and asked if she wanted to respond to the allegations before the court in India.
He said: “We do not propose to put the allegations regarding matters in India to our client, since we understand that this concerns an extortion attempt, which is a matter for the Indian legal system.
“You are no doubt aware of the ongoing issues with widespread abuse of section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which has been highlighted by the Indian judiciary. In light of this, it would not be legally proper, or appropriate, for us to put these matters to our client.”
Ms Jaswal said: “I reject the accusations made. Had their conscience been so clear, they would have defended the ongoing case in the court of law in India and not absconded.”
She’s even worse than we previously thought. Charlatan is too good a word.
But according to Council Leader Bella Sankey in March 2023 Chandni Mistry was one of the “Brilliant young candidates” Labour had standing.
Labour have pretty much blurred the lines between them and the Tories anyway, so Chandni will prob fit right in and be able to draw on her experience with B&H Labour when she mixes in Tory circles.
Also, did we ever find out who nominated Chandni for Young Councillor of the Year Award when she had only been elected for a matter of weeks so had not actually had the opportunity to do anything as a councillor…
Oh yeah she’s going to really bring the Tories down to labours level… Oh wait what planet are you living on? She’s a fraud and after being outed as a fraud she’s joining the Tories who will accept her with open arms.
She was welcomed with open arms to Labour first. If you’re trying to make out Labour are victims in this and somehow they were duped by a ‘fraud’, you need to remember it was their sloppy vetting processes that led to Chandni and her mum being candidates in the first place.
Local Labour said these candidates were imposed by the national party so it raises big questions over the party’s selection processes. Think it is also a concern that B&H Labour knew about the question marks over these councillors several months before it became known publicly (Lloyd Russell Moyle made that clear last autumn in a comment he made then).
“Adults back in charge” blah blah…..”due diligence” blah blah……”excellent local candidates” blah blah…..
Please don’t hit me Mr Amesbury!
So the way I see this is that for the Conservatives to welcome her into the party with open arms at least one of these things must be true:
1) Chandni Mistry was planted by the Conservatives to disrupt the political stability of the area, achieving this through absenteeism.
2) The Conservatives are massively incompetent and are not doing their due diligence, unaware of the potential electoral fraud she has been accused of by many people in her ex-ward.
3) This was a simple chance photo, and looks extremely bad on the Conservatives as it shows them being very supportive of this kind of behaviour and very unbecoming of a political party.
It’s a chance photo. Agree it doesn’t look good for the Cons but they can’t be expected to vet everyone who may ask for a selfie at a local party meet up. You’re making huge inference here.
That’s fair. I’m a bit slighted by her (in?)action as a Ward Councillor. I really hope she doesn’t ever get another to part of politics, whichever party she flies for. It would be a discredit to the people she will fail to represent.
“Chance photo” taken at a Tory party event!
You can’t attend Association Meetings without being a full party member. And this was clearly a leadership election hustings where only members get to vote.
So yes a failure of their checking procedures or she lied on the form. They usually ask if you’ve been a member of another party and if you’ve stood against party candidates
Grifter, you seriously could not make it up. Caveat Tories!
They’ll be trying their hand with Reform next🤣
B&H Labour and the Tories are one and the same! Bella and her rabble need to be held accountable for getting those two cllrs elected and costing our city so much.
C L I C K B A I T
A labour party put-in that went wrong (and her mum/aunt whichever it ended up being)
She was a Tory at heart from the beginning to feel privileged enough to turn up for just one meeting! Good riddance
good to see the story run and run and run = actually, the cllr did follow up the issues i raised with her in the short time she was there ….
You are on lucky chap with her stonewalling everyone lose with her fake emails and taking credit for the works in the LGIU awards, you got some work done from her. Though you seem to miss the point :
1. For a 20 year old such lack of ethics and principles by her conduct has been disheartening
2. The mother/ aunt bharti gajjar with her MP sites, Chandni herself and now even her brother Brijesh Gajjar are so power hungry that not caring about the party ideals be it labour, conservative or workers party they just want a seat
3. What is the vetting process in our political parties. Such dubious characters can easily be selected to stand as councillors and now even MPs
If she now fancies standing in some Conservative post,( or whatever party she chooses to latch on to) her dodgy electoral past will come back to haunt her.
Not sure: the whole fiasco is an example of poor vetting by the party and general public as such.
Do we google our representatives name ever, for had we done that initially we would have got to know of chandni being from Leicester from the leicester mercury article.
Let’s wait, maybe from another corner of the country or from another party these grifters we will get to see them try to get into power.