Chandigarh: Another showdown in offing as MC elects finance panel

The polls come in quick succession of a significant development, with two AAP councillors — Neha Musavat and Poonam Sandeep Kumar, who had jumped ship to the BJP ahead of the high-stakes mayoral polls — returned to the party fold, bolstering the alliance’s numbers

Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-Congress alliance are set for another showdown in the municipal corporation, with the finance and contract committee panel elections being scheduled for Monday. Six councillors, three from each camp, have filed their nominations.

The finance panel, which has five members and is headed by the mayor, is elected every year and has the power to deal with development agendas up to ₹50 lakh. (HT)

The polls come in quick succession of a significant development, with two AAP councillors — Neha Musavat and Poonam Sandeep Kumar, who had jumped ship to the BJP ahead of the high-stakes mayoral polls — returned to the party fold, bolstering the alliance’s numbers.

The finance panel, which has five members and is headed by the mayor, is elected every year and has the power to deal with development agendas up to ₹50 lakh. Members are elected through preferential voting with each councillor listing out their preference.

Councillors Jaswinder Kaur and Ramchandra Yadav from the AAP and Congress’ Taruna Mehta filed nomination papers as part of their alliance under the INDIA bloc, while BJP councillors Maheshinder Singh Sidhu, Lakhbir Singh Billu and Jasmanpreet Singh Singh also entered the fray.

Numbers game

On Sunday, the INDIA bloc held a pre-House meeting making sure that all councillors vote for their candidates in the polls scheduled to be held at 11 am.

The return of turncoats has bolstered the AAP-Congress, fighting under the INDIA bloc, strength in MC House to 19, with AAP now boasting of 12 councillors and Congress seven. For every seven councillors, a party can nominate one member to contest the elections.

BJP, which had a majority in the 35-member MC House, now bets on 17 votes, including that of MP Kirron Kher, an ex-officio member of the House, and the lone SAD councillor, who had favoured the saffron party during the mayoral polls.

In the past two years, the five members were elected unanimously with all parties fielding as many candidates as required (two each from BJP and AAP, and one from Congress).