The INDIA bloc alliance on March 4 faced a setback as the joint candidates of the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the re-elections for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (CMC).
The BJP’s Kuljit Singh Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma won the post of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.
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Mr. Sandhu secured 19 votes in his favour while the AAP-Congress’ joint candidate Gurpreet Singh Gabi secured 16 votes. One vote was declared invalid. Mr. Sharma, who won the deputy mayor post, secured 19 votes while the AAP-Congress’ joint candidate Nirmala Devi secured 17 votes.
The election to the two posts was conducted by the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Kuldeep Kumar, who was declared Chandigarh’s mayor by the Supreme Court in February. The apex court on February 20 had reversed the January 30 results of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar had won by defeating the AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar and became the city’s mayor.
As the city mayor is the presiding officer for conducting the election of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, the re-elections were conducted after the AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar became the mayor.
The Congress and the AAP, both INDIA bloc partners, jointly contested the mayoral elections against the BJP. Based on the alliance, the Congress contested the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, while the AAP fought for the mayor’s post.
In the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, the BJP has 17 councillors after three AAP councillors recently switched sides. The AAP now have ten councillors while the Congress has seven councillors. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has one member in the House. The BJP also has an ex-officio member, the MP from Chandigarh, who has voting rights, taking the BJP’s strength effectively to 18 in the House.
In the January election, BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar won the post of mayor by securing 16 votes. Eight votes were declared invalid. Congress and AAP members protested in the House, alleging poll rigging, after which their councillors boycotted the elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, resulting in the victory of Mr. Sandhu and Mr. Sharma of the BJP.
