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Chandigarh MC House to pick mayor on January 17
This time, any candidate from general category can contest for the post of mayor in Chandigarh MC; the tenure of the current mayor ends on January 7; last date of filing papers January 12
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are once again flexing their muscles to clinch the coveted posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor in Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) with the deputy commissioner announcing that the elections will be held on January 17.
The last date for filing of nominations is January 12.
The tenure of the present mayor will end on January 7.
Nominated councillor Amit Jindal will convene the meeting to elect the mayor.
Elections for the three posts are held every year during the five-year term of the MC House. This will be the second term.
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 scheduled caste category, fourth for a woman candidate from general category and fifth for general category.
How the House looks like
In the 35-member House, both BJP and AAP have got 14 councillors each, while Congress has six councillors and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has one councillor. To win the mayoral posts, a party needs 19 votes.
The front runners from AAP include Leader of Opposition Yogesh Dhingra and councillors Jasbir Singh and Damanpreet Singh, while from the BJP, councillors Mahesh Inder Sidhu, Saurabh Joshi, Anup Gupta, and Dalip Singh are eying the mayoral post. From Congress, Gurpreet Singh Gabi is the front runner.
AAP left fuming last year
The AAP, which had won 14 seats in the House, was left fuming last year as despite having the single-largest majority, it could not get any of the three posts. The BJP, which had 12 councillors at the time, managed to get 14 votes with Congress councillor Harpreet Singh Babla joining the BJP and the saffron party also benefiting from one vote of the MP.
While AAP had also won 14 votes, one of its votes was declared invalid. The party had cried foul, stating that the BJP had used unfair means to win the elections. AAP mayoral candidate Anju Katyal, and two councillors Prem Lata and Ram Chander Yadav had also moved the high court, challenging the results, however, the petition was dismissed.
As per sources, both AAP and Congress may sprung surprise this time to defeat the BJP.
AAP leader of Opposition Yogesh Dhingra said, “We are hopeful of winning not just the mayor’s post but also that of the senior deputy mayor and mayor.”
BJP president Arun Sood said, “We are going to win all three seats as we have 15 members in the House. As far as candidates are concerned, the observer will come from Centre to finalise the candidates in the next few days.”
Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky said the grand old party will also throw its hat in the ring. “We are going to contest mayoral elections this time,” he said.
Nominated councillors won’t vote
Till January 2017, nominated councillors had voting rights in mayoral polls and played an important role in electing the mayor, senior deputy mayor, and deputy mayor. But in January 2018, Punjab and Haryana high court annulled their voting rights. The matter is pending in the Supreme Court. Nine nominated councillors were appointed in October last year.
