The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Harpreet Kaur Babla has won the Chandigarh mayoral election. In the voting held on on Thursday, January 30, Babla won by securing 19 votes in the 36-member House. Prem Lata, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidate backed by the Congress, received 17 votes.
Notably, AAP-Congress alliance has majority in Chandigarh, but 3 members of the alliance voted in favour of the BJP candidate. They have 19 Councillors, adding the vote of Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari, it goes up to 20, but their candidate ended up getting only 17 votes, with 3 members opting to back the BJP candidate Babla.
Following the controversy during last year’s mayoral elections, this time, election was conducted under the supervision of former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Jaishree Thakur, who was appointed by the Supreme Court as an independent observer. The proceedings were also recorded on camera.
Harpreet Kaur Babla will serve as the mayor for one year, before elections are held again next year.
