E-Paper
Chandigarh to get new senior deputy, deputy mayors today
While the BJP is confident of winning, the beleaguered Congress-AAP alliance is relying on cross-voting to also clinch the two posts
Having secured numerical edge with the defection of three AAP councillors, the BJP is confident of winning the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts, whose elections are scheduled on Monday.
The beleaguered Congress-AAP alliance, on the other hand, is relying on cross-voting to also clinch the two posts after wresting the mayor’s post from the BJP’s grasp following a hard-fought legal battle that reached the Supreme Court.
In the 35-member MC House, a party needs 19 votes to win the poll, which the BJP has in its kitty, with 17 councillors, one ex-officio vote of BJP MP Kirron Kher and support of the sole SAD councillor.
AAP, on the other hand, has 10 councillors, and even the pre-poll alliance with the Congress, which has seven votes, will not help the INDIA bloc reach the magic number of 19. AAP’s efforts to bring the three turncoats back, ever since they switched sides on February 18, have also failed to materialise.
To avoid “reverse poaching”, until Sunday, the BJP continued to keep the three AAP turncoats at a resort in Kurukshetra, while the other councillors remained at resorts in Baddi and Pinjore.
The fresh polls were necessitated after the Supreme Court, on February 20, overturned the results of Chandigarh mayoral polls due to tampering of votes by presiding officer Anil Masih, and declared AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor the winner.
Congress councillors Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi will contest for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts, respectively, as part of the agreement with AAP. The BJP has again fielded Kuljeet Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma for the two posts, respectively.
The elections will begin at 10 am on Monday and will be conducted by the newly elected mayor.
“We will be winning the election on Monday. All our councillors are united,” said Chandigarh BJP chief Jatinder Pal Malhotra.
Also optimistic of a win, Dr SS Ahulwalia, the Chandigarh AAP in-charge, said two or three councillors from the Opposition camp will surely vote for the INDIA bloc.
