E-Paper
HC defers Chandigarh mayoral elections, to be held after January 29
AAP mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor had filed the plea seeking quashing of Chandigarh’s notification for polls on Jan 24, stating that his tenure is up to February 20
The Punjab and Haryana high court on Monday quashed the Chandigarh administration’s January 7 notification for mayoral elections on January 24, and directed that the same be held after January 29.
The plea seeking quashing of the notification was filed by AAP city mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor on January 17.
RPS Bara, who appeared for the mayor with senior advocate Gurminder Singh, said that HC has quashed the January 7 notification.
“Now the elections will be held after January 29, after a fresh notification. The elections have been deferred on grounds that the tenure of the present mayor Kuldeep Kumar is up to January 29,” said Bara, adding that with regards to the demand for show of hands for voting, the HC has directed the administration to reconsider the same.
The court has also issued directions for videography of the whole election process, he added. A detailed order is awaited.
The petitioner had argued that the mayor should be allowed to continue till February 20, when he took over last year. UT had countered the argument stating that the law mandates that elections are held in the first house meeting of the year, which is convened in the month of January.
Last year’s mayoral polls were held on January 30, and it is in this view that the court asked the administration to announce a date post January 29.
With regards to the plea for show of hands, the petitioner had cited the 2024 mayoral polls during which presiding officer Anil Masih was caught on camera tampering with ballots. As a result of this, Dhalor had initially lost the mayoral elections to BJP nominee Manoj Sonkar. But on February 20, 2024, the Supreme Court had nullified the elections following which Dhalor had become the first non-Congress, non-BJP mayor in the city’s history.
BJP, Cong file nominations, AAP yet to declare mayoral candidate
With the court proceedings going on till 3.30pm, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress candidates filed their nominations as Monday was the last day for filing of papers as per the now-quashed January 7 notification.
BJP named Harpreet Kaur Babla as their mayoral candidate, Bimala Dubey for the post of senior deputy mayor, and Lakhbir Singh Billu for deputy mayor.
The Congress, adhering to its alliance pact with AAP, nominated Jasbir Singh Bunty for the senior deputy mayor’s post and Taruna Mehta for deputy mayor. As per the alliance agreement, Congress will contest for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor while AAP will field a candidate for the mayoral post. With its plea pending in court, the AAP chose not to declare a mayoral candidate or file nomination on Monday.
The BJP and Congress nominees will now have to file nominations afresh as the court declared the January 7 notification null and void.
AAP leader Dr Sunny Ahluwalia said, “Since the court has declared the election notification null and void, we decided not to file the nominations as it was of no use. We are thankful to the HC for respecting the people’s mandate and delivering justice to the AAP.”
All six women councillors from AAP are eyeing the mayoral post, with Prem Lata a possible front-runner.
Deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav said, “After having a detailed discussion on the court’s order, I will notify elections again, possibly on Tuesday, and announce a new date.”
The AAP-Congress combine is likely to maintain their hold on key positions, as they have 21 votes — 13 from AAP, seven from Congress and one ex-officio vote of MP Manish Tewari --in the 35-member MC. The BJP, on the other hand, has just 15 votes, and is hoping for cross-voting or defections to tip the balance in its favour. A party needs 19 votes to win the poll.
