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AAP closes in on gaining control over Moga, Kotkapura MCs
Bolstered by the support of 42 councillors in 50-member House, party to move no-confidence motion against Moga mayor on July 4; Congress’ Nitika Bhalla, who was elected the first female mayor of Moga in 2021.
With a number of councillors joining the AAP in the past few months, the party is pushing forward to gain control over the civic bodies of Moga and Kotkapura by toppling the incumbent mayor and other functionaries of the Congress.
Congress’ Nitika Bhalla, who was elected the first female mayor of Moga in 2021, is likely to lose her spot as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is set to bring a no-confidence motion against her in the July 4 House meeting.
As many as 42 out of the 50 councillors in the House have announced their support to the AAP and signed the no-confidence motion, which was submitted to the MC joint commissioner.
Last week, the councillors had submitted a no-confidence motion against senior deputy mayor Parveen Kumar Sharma, deputy mayor Ashok Dhamija and the finance and contract committee (F&CC).
AAP has planned to take over the House by installing a new mayor and other functionaries.
As per sources, a former Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillor, who had lobbied to win over the support of councillors, is likely to be elected the new mayor of Moga. He has already joined the AAP.
In the Moga municipal corporation elections held in 2021, Congress had won 20 seats, SAD had bagged 15, Independents had won 10 seats while four went into AAP’s kitty. The Bharatiya Janata Party had secured only one seat. All 10 Independents had supported the Congress in installing Nikita Bhalla as the mayor.
But after the AAP won the assembly elections, 32 councillors from Congress, SAD and BJP have officially joined it, taking the official count of the party in the House to 36.
“Moga MC is not functioning properly as all development works are stuck. The Congress mayor is non-supportive. A no-confidence motion has been moved against the mayor. At least 42 of 50 councillors are now supporting AAP to elect a new mayor. We are confident that Moga MC will have an AAP mayor and development projects will pick up pace,” said AAP’s Moga MLA Amandeep Kaur Arora.
In Kotkapura, AAP set to go from nil to single-largest party
AAP is also eyeing to take over the Kotkapura municipal council, which falls under the assembly segment of Punjab Vidhan Sabha speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan.
On Saturday, 11 Congress councillors had joined the AAP at Sandhwan’s residence. With Congress’ strength shrinking to 10 seats, AAP, which had failed to win even a single MC seat in the 2021 elections, is set to become the largest party in the 29-member House.
In 2021, the Congress had won 21 seats, SAD three and five went to Independents. But due to infighting within Congress, the election for the post of Kotkapura MC president was postponed five times in 2021.
However, the party has a big challenge here as the Kotkapura MC president’s post is reserved for a BC category councillor and there are only three seats reserved for the category in the House.
Of the three wards reserved for BC category, two councillors belong to Congress while one owes allegiance to Shiromani Akali Dal. While Congress councillor from ward number 4 (reserved for BC category) Bhau Ram has died, the second is the Congress’ present MC president Bhupinder Singh Saggu. Now, AAP needs four more councillors, including one who won from a seat reserved for BC candidate.
AAP’s Sukhjeet Singh Dhilwan, the chairman of the district planning committee, Faridkot, said the councillors have joined the party after seeing the development works carried out by the government led by chief minister Bhagwant Mann in the state.
“We will work together for further development of the area,” he added.
