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Congress councillor joins BJP, bumps up its strength in Chandigarh MC House
With this new joinee, BJP’s tally in the 35-member Chandigarh MC House has increased to 14, equal to the number of AAP councillors
Congress councillor from ward 20, Gurcharan Jeet Singh Kala, changed party loyalties and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday.
With this new joinee, BJP’s tally in the 35-member municipal corporation House increased to 14, equal to the number of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors. The Congress’ strength decreased to six, while Shiromani Akali Dal has a lone seat.
With an additional vote of the member of Parliament (MP), who is from the BJP, the saffron party will have an edge over the AAP in the annual mayoral poll, particularly if the Congress and the SAD choose to abstain from the proceedings, like they did in the last elections in January this year.
In the civic body elections held in December last year, the AAP, contesting its first MC poll in the city, had come out on the top with 14 councillors, while the BJP was the second-largest party in the House with 12 councillors.
The Congress, which started in the new MC House with eight councillors, soon lost one to the BJP, as Harpreet Kaur Babla, along with her husband, Devinder Singh Babla, a former Congress councillor, joined the saffron fold.
In the subsequent mayoral elections, the BJP succeeded in edging past the AAP by winningall three posts – mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, in a very closely contested election.
On Wednesday, Kala joined the BJP in the presence of MP Kirron Kher at the Chandigarh BJP Headquarters in Sector 33. He represents Hallomajra and Behlana areas of the city.
BJP state president Arun Sood said, “Gurcharanjit Singh Kala is returning home today as he has been the state general secretary of the BJP Kisan Morcha twice in the past.”
While welcoming Kala to the party, Kher said, “It is only the BJP that is always at the forefront in getting development works done, while no other party has any interest in the city’s development.”
Notably, only two days ago, a number of Congress leaders had joined the BJP.
Among them were Congress state secretary Ajay Sharma, district vice-president Chintan Bajaj, district general secretary Amit, rural district general secretary Sarabjit Singh (Black), district vice president Bunty Dhaliwal, Youth Congress secretary Kanwar Rana Kaku, Youth Congress secretary Paramvir Singh, and Congress ward president and former head of Sadar Bazar Narinder Singh Rinku.
Apart from them, social workers Vinod Kumar and Sumit Sharma, along with about 500 people, had also joined hands with the BJP.
Commenting on Kala’s jump to the BJP, AAP’s Chandigarh convener Prem Garg said, “Anybody can join any party in a democracy. But the Congress should put its House in order, as it has been losing its leaders to the BJP in both Punjab and Chandigarh.”
In the MC elections, though the Congress doubled its tally from the previous elections, it lost major ground to the AAP. Even before the elections, the party had seen major migration of its leaders, including its city president Pardeep Chhabra, to the AAP.
“The Congress is in a major crisis in the city. The party is severely inflicted with inter-party rivalries and there is a section that is consistently pushing for leadership change,” said a Congress leader, requesting anonymity.
Meanwhile, a BJP leader, closely associated with the recent switch of Congress leaders, said, “We are expecting more Congress leaders to join the party in the near future.”
