Keeping councillors under tight leash, BJP claws back in Chandigarh civic body

Councillors frequently made to change “hideouts”, told to remain incommunicado and kept segregated from turncoats — these were among the tactics the BJP used to ensure victory in the polls held on Monday to elect the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor for the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, and put the embarrassment over the Mayor election behind it.

On Monday, the BJP’s Kuljeet Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma were elected Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, beating Gurpreet Singh and Nirmala Devi (both of the Congress). Both Sandhu and Sharma got 19 votes each, against 16 and 17 polled by Gurpreet and Devi respectively.

Stakes were high for the BJP after the Supreme Court on February 20 declared the Aam Aadmi Party-Congress candidate, Kuldeep Kumar, the validly elected Mayor, issuing strictures over the conduct of the returning officer in the January 30 election in declaring the BJP nominee the winner.

While the BJP did not have the numbers, eight votes of the AAP-Congress combine were declared invalid by returning officer Anil Masih, leading to the victory of its candidate, Manoj Sonkar.

Since the Supreme Court took up the matter, the BJP had put its plans in motion. On February 18, a day before Masih was due for appearance before the apex court, Sonkar resigned, while three AAP councillors– Neha Musawat, Poonam and Gurcharan Kala – switched sides to the BJP, taking its strength in the 36-member House from 14 to 17. The BJP was also confident of the vote of its Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, who is the ex-officio member of the House, and the lone Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Councillor, Hardeep Singh.

After the apex court did not order re-election for the Mayor, and instead held a count again, including the ballot papers