Chandigarh Municipal Corporation: BJP Wins Senior Deputy Mayor Post, Polling On To Elect Deputy Mayor

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kuljeet Singh Sandhu was on Monday elected as senior deputy mayor after repolling in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, which saw massive controversy after team AAP-Congress accused the saffron party of rigging the poll.

Kuljeet Singh Sandhu secured 19 votes while Congress' Gurpreet Gabi got 16 votes. One vote was declared invalid. The result was announced by the mayor.

In the 35-member municipal House, the BJP has 17 councillors. The number of BJP's strength increased from 14 to 17 after three AAP councillors switched over to it on February 19. The AAP has 10 members while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor.

Election To Post of Deputy Mayor Underway

The Election to the post of deputy mayor, meanwhile, is underway. Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, who is a BJP member, also has voting rights as an ex-officio member of the corporation.

Alleging tampering of ballots, councillors of the AAP and the Congress on January 30 boycotted the elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, leading to the victory of Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma then.

This time too the BJP has fielded Sharma for the post of deputy mayor. He is up against Congress' Nirmala Devi.

What Was Row About In Chandigarh Mayor Poll

The Supreme Court on February 20 had overturned the January 30 results of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had emerged an unlikely winner, and declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the city's new mayor.

In a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance and INDIA bloc, the BJP on January 30 had swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls, retaining all the three posts. The Congress and the AAP had alleged tampering with ballot papers by the presiding officer.

Manoj Sonkar of the BJP had defeated AAP's Kuldeep Kumar for the mayor's post, polling 16 votes against his rival's 12. Eight votes were declared invalid.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), after the poll result, had cited a video that purportedly showed presiding officer Anil Masih making some marks on some ballots. Later, the presiding officer admitted to having tampered with the ballots, prompting the Supreme Court to order a recount.

The AAP leader had contended the alliance had 20 votes in the civic body as against 16 of the BJP and that eight ballots of the alliance were rendered invalid by defacing them.