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Punjab: Amritsar mayoral poll heads for photo finish
Aam Aadmi Party, Congress in a tight contest to elect their candidate to the top post in the civic body
A close contest is expected between the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Amritsar mayoral elections scheduled to be held on January 27.
Besides the mayor, the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor will also be elected following the oath-taking ceremony of the newly elected councillors.
The Congress emerged as the single-largest party in the House, winning 40 out of 85 seats. With five MLAs from the Amritsar’s urban segment also having voting rights the total strength of the House goes up to 90 and the Congress is six short of the majority mark of 46. It has managed to secure the support of one of the eight independent councillors so far taking its tally to 41. Infighting in the Congress over its mayoral candidate has also hampered its chances of forging alliances to get past the majority mark.
AAP, which has 24 councillors, on the other hand, is counting on the support of its five MLAs from urban segments — Amritsar Central, Amritsar North, Amritsar South, Amritsar East and Amritsar West.
Besides, as per AAP leaders they have managed to secure the support of seven of the eight independent councillors, while two of the nine BJP councillors have also extended support to the incumbent party in the state. With this AAP’s strength has increased to 38.
This leaves seven BJP and four Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillors in the open who will most likely be the kingmakers on the day of mayoral polls.
Further, there is confusion over whether the MLAs from the Jandiala Guru and Attari constituencies will also be allowed to vote. Both areas fall under the MC jurisdiction but traditionally the legislators have not voted in mayoral polls.
The officials have not clarified in this regard yet and if they are allowed to vote it will add to AAP’s kitty as both MLAs belong to the ruling party.
“We are sure that the next mayor of Amritsar will be from AAP. We have 40 votes with the inclusion of votes of MLAs from Jandiala Guru and Attari. On the day of elections, more councillors will vote for the AAP candidate,” AAP councillor Jarnail Singh Dhot said.
The Congress and other party leaders are accusing the AAP of misusing state machinery to pressurise the councillors into supporting it.
Congress, meanwhile, is a divided house with two factions led by four-time councillor Rajkanwalpreetpal Singh Lucky and two-time councillor Vikas Soni, son of deputy CM OP Soni, have staked their claims for the mayor’s post.
As per sources, the Congress leadership, in an effort to end the stalemate, conducted voting in which 30 councillors supported Soni, while 11 were with Lucky.
“Reports of a rift in Congress are baseless. All the party councillors are on the same page. AAP’s illegitimate tactics of gaining majority will not yield results and it will face a debacle in the elections”, said Congress councillor Rajkanwalpreetpal Singh Lucky.
As per some sources, the voting may be conducted by a show of hands at the auditorium of the government medical college here to curb chances of cross-voting.
