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AAP, splinter Akali group uncertain over contesting Mohali MC elections
Meanwhile, local MLA and cabinet minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the Congress was ready for the MC elections.
Even though the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD, Badal)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance as well as the Congress party have pulled up their sleeves for the upcoming municipal corporation (MC) elections in Mohali, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and a splinter Akali group floated by Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa are still uncertain.
The elections, date undecided, will be held in 50 wards with an estimated 2.36 lakh voter base. The former councillors of both Congress and SAD-BJP have already started circulating their achievements in the past five years on social media.
President of AAP Punjab and member of parliament (MP) Bhagwant Mann said, “We are yet to take a decision on contesting elections and a meeting in this regard will be held in a few days. We are not even sure when the state government will hold the said elections, but we are in the process of strengthening our organisation at the district level.”
Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, who floated the splinter Akali group in July, said, “We will be holding a meeting with the party workers before taking any decision on contesting the MC elections. We will not allow any party to sail smoothly.”
Meanwhile, local MLA and cabinet minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said the Congress was ready for the MC elections. “The people of Mohali have seen development in the past few years and we are hopeful of winning the elections with a clean majority.”
The civic body is elected for a period of five years. The last five-year term ended on April 26 this year. The MC House constituted 14 Congress seats; 23 SAD-BJP seats; the Azad group ,which was led by former mayor Kulwant Singh, won 10 seats; and two seats were won by independent councillors.
In the 2015 elections, 27 councillors including 10 from the Azad group, 14 from Congress and two independent councillors had elected Kulwant Singh as the mayor, but later in August 2017, Kulwant joined SAD.
Of 2.36 lakh people voting, 25,000 belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) category; five seats have been reserved for the SC candidates, two for women (SC), three for backward classes and two for women from the backward classes. There are 43 general category seats, of which 23 are reserved for women and 20 for men.
Mohali delimitation meeting held
The meeting of the delimitation board was held on Tuesday at Local Government Bodies in Sector 35, Chandigarh. The Board asked the Mohali MC commissioner to bring the drawing of the new areas balancing the population in the next meeting, which is scheduled on September 8.
