Amid fears of rebellion, BJP to announce name of Chandigarh mayoral candidate on last day of nominations

The fear of a 2019-like rebellion remains a possibility this year too as a section of councillors have expressed unhappiness over the prospects of party state chief Arun Sood getting the nomination

Even as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s central leadership makes last ditch efforts to have a consensus candidate for the Chandigarh mayor’s post, internal party rifts over the issue are threatening to come out into the open.

Continuing with its four-year tradition of last-minute announcement of its nominees for the post of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, the BJP will declare the names on Monday, the last day of filing nominations.

“The tradition came into works in a bid to dissuade councillors to go against the party’s decision. In 2019, the strategy failed to stop a rebel candidate from standing up against the party’s nominee. However, this time around, the party is hoping that last-minute declaration would not give such a chance to anyone,” said a senior leader, on the condition of anonymity.

BJP national general secretary and state party in-charge Dushyant Gautam had met all 20 party councillors on Wednesday. On Sunday, too, he continued to hold parleys with the local leadership to avoid any chance of a rebellion.

“With no consensus candidate being agreed upon by the councillors during their one-on-one meeting with Gautam, they were asked to suggest two names each for the three posts. Their resumes were also taken,” said a councillor, who didn’t want to be named.

Winning candidate might need just 13 votes

The fear of a 2019-like rebellion remains a possibility this year too as a section of councillors have expressed unhappiness over the prospects of party state chief Arun Sood getting the nomination.

“This year, the concern over rebellion has been heightened. There is a possibility that the winning candidate might need only 13 votes to get elected,” said another councillor.

The 26 elected councillors and the city MP, who is an ex-officio member of the House, vote in the mayoral polls. The winning candidate needs 14 votes. In 2020, BJP candidate got 22 out of the 27 votes. In 2019, with cross-voting taking place, the BJP candidate could get only 16 votes while the rebel candidate got 11.

“This time around, the lone Shiromani Akali Dal councillor is set to boycott elections in support of the farmers’ stir. Last year, he voted for the BJP. Also, due to poor health, councillor Hira Negi and MP Kirron Kher are likely to miss voting. So, the magic mark could be reduced to 13 as only 24 councillors are expected to vote,” said the senior leader. “The party is also hoping not many councillors would want to go against its decision for the fear of losing their ticket for the House elections later in the year.”