BJP has won the polls for Chandigarh Municipal Corporation’s Mayor’s post in a closely contested poll. The party has also secured the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Sarabjit Kaur won the election by a margin of just one vote by bagging 14 against AAP’s Anju Katyal on Saturday 8th January 2022 to become the mayor. BJP’s Anup Gupta won the Deputy Mayor post through draw of lot. Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation Anindita Mitra picked the slip from the box. BJP’s Dalip Sharma won the seat of Senior Deputy Mayor. He defeated Prem Lata of AAP by 2 votes. AAP councillors created ruckus at the assembly hall of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation after defeat in the Mayor’s election.
The results of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election were declared on 27th December 2021. The elections of the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayors had become the topic of interest since then due to the number of seats won by different parties. BJP had won 12 seats. Congress had won 8 seats. Shiromani Akali Dal managed to win just one seat. AAP had topped the charts with 14 seats. But when it came to elect the posts, BJP emerged as the winner.
Election for the Mayor’s post
Congress had already opted out of the elections and did not field any candidate. Seven Congress councilors abstained from voting. They were joined by the lone SAD councilor. Initially BJP had thirteen votes in its favor. BJP’s 14th vote came from Member of Parliament Kirron Kher, who is an ex-officio member of the Municipal House. This way, AAP and BJP were tied at 14 votes each. However, one vote of AAP declared invalid due to torn paper. Sarabjit Kaur won the election by a margin of just one vote to defeat AAP’s Anju Katyal.
However, AAP members did not accept this fault on their part. Crying foul, AAP councilors sat next to the newly-elected Mayor and did not allow Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap to move, stalling the election process of the post of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor. AAP councilors made ruckus at the assembly hall of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. Secretary of the house made repeated requests all councilors to leave the mayor seat and take their respective seats.
Election for the post of deputies
Additional force of Chandigarh police reached the assembly hall, trying to evacuate the Mayor seat area. Amid AAP’s protest, newly-elected Chandigarh Mayor BJP’s Sarabjit Kaur took oath. Kaur had to get the elections done for both the posts.
Meanwhile AAP demanded that elections for Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor be done through raising of hands instead of secret ballot. Ignoring this demand, District Collector asked the secretary to read out rules and regulation to conduct the election. Secretary read out the rules and voting for the Senior Deputy Mayor started. 28 votes were polled for Senior Deputy Mayor post including that of Kirron Kher. BJP’s Dalip Sharma won the seat of Senior Deputy Mayor. Out of total 28 polled votes, BJP’s Dalip Sharma got 15 and AAP’s Prem Lata received 13 votes.
So, this is evident that AAP could not even retain all of its 14 votes. BJP’s Anup Gupta won the Deputy Mayor post through draw of lot. Commissioner of the Municipal Corporation Anindita Mitra picked the slip from the box. Thereby, BJP won all 3 seats of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor.