Less than two hours before the UT administration announced January 18 as the polling date for the 2024 mayoral election, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Lakhbir Singh Billu dumped the party and jumped to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), further strengthening the saffron fold’s numbers in the House.
In the 35-member House of the Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC), the BJP now has 15 councillors, whereas AAP’s strength has dropped from 13 to 12. The Congress has seven councillors, whereas one councillor is from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). With another vote of member of Parliament and ex-officio member Kirron Kher, the BJP has an edge in the elections.
To be elected, a mayoral candidate must muster at least 19 votes.
Elected from city’s ward number 31 on an AAP ticket, councillor Lakhbir Singh Billu, on his move to the BJP, said he was impressed by the policies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a lot of development work had been done in Chandigarh under the BJP leadership.
“Lakhbir’s arrival will strengthen the party. He will be given due respect in the party,” said state BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, who welcomed Billu in the party fold in the presence of MP Kirron Kher, former BJP state president Sanjay Tandon and BJP councillors.
Jan 13 last date to file nominations
{{/usCountry}}Jan 13 last date to file nominations
{{/usCountry}}In a notification issued on Wednesday, deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh said the mayoral election will be held at 11 am at the Assembly Hall of the MC building in Sector 17.
The notification also read that the last date to file nominations for all three posts is January 13, leaving just two days for the parties to decide on their candidates. Current mayor Anup Gupta’s tenure will end on January 16.
Along with the mayor, the House will also pick the next senior deputy and deputy mayors. Elections for the three posts are held every year during the five-year term of the MC House. This time, the mayor will be elected for the third term and the seat is reserved for the Scheduled Caste (SC) category.
The first term is reserved for a woman candidate from general category, the second is for any candidate from general category, third for a candidate from SC category, fourth for a woman candidate from general category and fifth for general category. Seats for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor are not reserved.
Contenders for mayoral post
While earlier Manoj Sonkar was the only SC candidate from the ruling BJP, Lakhbir is also from the SC category, giving the party two choices to decide from. Party leaders, however, said they were confident in Sonkar.
AAP now will have to choose from three candidates — Kuldeep Dhalor, Neha and Poonam. Party insiders said Dhalor was the front-runner in the race.
The Congress has two SC councillors — Jasbir Singh Bunty and Nirmala Devi — but stands no chance, with numbers not on its side.
How BJP won in last two years
The Congress and SAD had boycotted the last two mayoral polls, smoothing the way for BJP’s win.
In the MC elections in 2021, the AAP had earlier bagged 14 seats, BJP 12 seats, Congress eight and the SAD one seat. The number of BJP votes in the House had gone up to 14 as Harpreet Kaur Babla, the wife of former Chandigarh Congress vice-president, Devinder Babla, had joined the BJP.
Both in 2022 and 2023, the BJP candidate won from just one vote after a vote was declared invalid due to various reasons. In 2023, Taruna Mehta had joined Congress after leaving AAP, thus revising the numbers.