As the rift between AAP and Congress – INDIA bloc partners – continues to simmer in Delhi and Punjab, the upcoming Chandigarh mayoral poll promises to be a curious battle with the BJP exuding confidence to win while eyeing cross-voting in the INDIA alliance. A report by Rajesh Moudgil
The January 24 Chandigarh mayoral poll is being keenly watched across political circles in the backdrop of the ongoing ugly showdown between AAP and Congress in Delhi ahead of the assembly elections there, as well as in Punjab.
However, even though the two parties say they have stitched an alliance for the mayoral election in Chandigarh for being the partners of the INDIA bloc, the BJP which does not have numbers to in the said polls, insists it would snatch the victory because of the expected cross-voting in the INDIA alliance.
For record, in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) House of 35 members, the BJP has 14 members, the AAP has 13 members and Congress, seven; one ex-officio vote is of Chandigarh Congress MP Manish Tewari and the Shiromani Akali Dal, which sides with BJP, has one member. In other words, INDIA bloc has 21 votes and thus has the upper hand to win. The saffron party which has 15 votes, is, however, heavily relying on the potential cross-voting from INDIA bloc or defection to bag the victory in the said annual election.
Why? Sample this: A few days ago, Congress councillors who had come to attend a tea party organised by incumbent AAP mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor, had left abruptly after they received a call from party leaders, indicating that not all was well between the two partners of INDIA bloc. Moreover, two AAP councillors had also skipped a crucial meeting of the AAP.
The Congress councillors who did not want to be named had held that they had been called back to Chandigarh Congress Bhawan as it seemed the Congress leadership was not happy with AAP – despite the fact that the mayoral polls are held in December, the AAP had not taken any initiative to hold any meeting for mutual tie-up till recently.
AAP, Cong to fight jointly
However, after the two parties finally held a meeting last week, the Congress leaders held that they would jointly fight the elections against BJP. Congress president HS Lucky held that though the candidates were yet to be decided, it had been decided that the elections would be fought jointly.
Meanwhile, the AAP has also moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking its directions for steps for transparency in the election process and demanding that in place of voting by secret ballot, polling be done by show of hands.
Notably, in 2024, the infamous mayoral polls were mired in controversy after the presiding officer, a nominated councillor and former member of BJP, was accused of tampering with the ballots and rejecting votes polled in favour of the AAP-Congress alliance. Anil had subsequently declared BJP’s Manoj Sonkar as the mayor on January 30 last year – much to the ire of the alliance which first moved to the Punjab and Haryana High Court and later the Supreme Court. The top court overturned the result and declared Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor of AAP as mayor.
Meanwhile, according to the schedule for the January 24 election to the post of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, nominated councillor Dr Ramneek Singh Bedi has been appointed as the presiding officer. The elected councillors could file their nominations for the three posts by January 20. Under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act 1976, the term of Mayor in Chandigarh MC is of one year.
