Drama continues over Chandigarh mayoral poll

CHANDIGARH: High drama continued on Wednesday over the annual election for the top post of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, slated on Thursday, as the Congress candidate for the mayoral post "is still in the fray" against his AAP rival despite an alliance between the two parties.

Also in the race is the BJP which rules the civic body.

The Congress had stitched an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party under which it would support the AAP for the Mayor's post, while the AAP would support it for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Tensions prevailed on Tuesday as scuffles broke out between workers of the BJP and the Congress-AAP alliance when Congress Councillor Jasbir Singh Bunty arrived to withdraw his nomination papers for the mayoral post.

Amidst the commotion, Bunty's father claimed that his son had been kidnapped and demanded his release.

City Congress President Harmohinder Singh Lucky on Wednesday, however, dismissed the allegations against AAP of abducting their mayoral candidate, saying the BJP is making such claims because of its impending defeat in the upcoming elections.

He said the Congress had withdrawn the nomination of mayoral candidature by Bunty twice and if needed, they would do it on polling day also.

"The party withdrew its nomination after it was decided Kuldeep Dhalor Tita of AAP will be mayor candidate under INDIA bloc," he said, adding: "The BJP is killing democracy. They think they will lose because they have 15 votes and we, the APP-Congress alliance, have 20 votes. They know the alliance will win all three posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor, and Deputy Mayor.”

In the 35-member house of the Municipal Corporation, the BJP, which is ruling, has 14 councillors, with another vote of member of Parliament and ex-officio member Kirron Kher. The AAP has 13 councillors, while the Congress holds seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor.

The AAP has called the mayoral election the “first fight of INDIA alliance against the BJP” and a “curtain raiser” for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Ahead of the mayor election, AAP MP Raghav Chadha and senior Congress leader and former Union Minister Pawan Bansal met in Chandigarh.

In January last year, 29 votes were polled of which Anup Gupta of the BJP won the mayor election defeating Aam Aadmi Party's Jasbir Singh Laddi by only one vote. Gupta got 15, while Singh secured 14.

The Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal abstained from the voting. In 2022 too the BJP candidate had won from just one vote after a vote was declared invalid due to various reasons.

Elections for the three posts are held every year during the five-year term of the House. This time, the M ayor will be elected for the third term and the seat is reserved for the Scheduled Caste category.