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Chandigarh: BJP moves councillors to Morni Hills amid ‘reverse’ poaching fears
To prevent three AAP councillors’ return to the party fold, all BJP councillors remained at the PWD Guest House in Panchkula’s Sector 1; to further ensure that they remain unreachable before the fresh elections, senior party leaders directed them to move to a resort in Morni Hills
Two days ahead of the fresh election for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday moved its councillors to Morni Hills in an ostensible attempt to guard against potential poaching.
In response to the Supreme Court’s decision to set aside the Chandigarh mayoral elections held on February 20, that also rendered the results for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor positions void, the UT administration has scheduled a fresh election for the two positions on Tuesday.
Congress councillors Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi will vie for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, as part of the agreement with AAP, its INDIA bloc partner. The BJP will again field Kuljeet Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma for the two posts, respectively.
But though the AAP-Congress alliance snatched the mayor’s post from the BJP, they are unlikely to find success in the Tuesday election.
After three AAP councillors defected to the BJP two days before the apex court’s verdict, the saffron party has secured the numerical edge 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, is down to 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. At least two of the three turncoat councillors returning to the AAP is the combine’s only hope for victory.
To prevent this, until Saturday, the 17 BJP councillors remained at the PWD Guest House in Panchkula’s Sector 1. To further ensure that they remain unreachable before the fresh elections, senior party leaders directed them to move to a resort in Morni Hills.
“The BJP is jittery about our councillors joining us back. To prevent this, they have taken away the mobile phones of the three councillors and shifted them to Morni Hills, along with the BJP councillors. The family members of the three councillors are worried, unaware of their whereabouts,” said Chandigarh AAP co-in-charge Dr SS Ahluwalia.
City BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra said, “The councillors are staying together as per party official’s decision. We are sure to win the two seats.”
New mayor to take charge today
Having clinched victory in the Chandigarh mayoral elections after a hard-fought legal battle, AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor will formally take charge as the city mayor at the Municipal Corporation office in Sector 17 on Monday.
Though the party’s Chandigarh unit was planning to make the new mayor’s swearing-in ceremony a grand event by inviting Delhi chief minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann and senior party leader Raghav Chadha, the top three leaders won’t be joining the celebrations.
“The party chief and big leaders have other political commitments, so they are unlikely to join for the swearing-in ceremony, scheduled on February 26. Only Punjab MP and senior AAP leader Sandeep Kumar Pathak will be joining us,” said Chandigarh AAP co-in-charge, Dr SS Ahluwalia.
