BJP's Kuljeet Sandhu Wins Chandigarh Deputy Mayoral Polls

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kuljeet Sandhu is the new senior deputy mayor of Chandigarh. (Image: X/ Kuljit Sandhu)

Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kuljeet Sandhu secured the post of senior deputy mayor in Chandigarh after a closely contested race with Gurpreet Singh Dabi, the joint candidate from Congress and Aam Aadmi Party. The elections for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation were held on Monday.

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.

The process for election for the two posts is being conducted by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Kumar who recently assumed the charge of Chandigarh mayor. In the January 30 poll, BJP’s Manoj Sonkar had defeated Kumar to become mayor.

Alleging tampering of ballots, councillors of the AAP and the Congress boycotted the elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, leading to the victory of BJP’s Kuljit Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma.

For the Monday elections, Congress councillors Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi are the candidates for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively. The BJP has again fielded Sandhu and Sharma.

Kumar had on Wednesday assumed the charge as mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, over a week after the Supreme Court declared him as the civic body chief.

The mayor is the presiding officer for the elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy 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.

Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, who is a BJP member, also has voting rights as an ex-officio member of the corporation.

The AAP has 10 members while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor.

The Congress and the AAP are fighting the polls in alliance.

The court had also ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his ”misdemeanour”, after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election. Sonkar had defeated the comfortably placed AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the returning officer declared as invalid eight votes of the coalition partners, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots.

Sonkar of the BJP had defeated Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival’s 12 to bag the mayor’s post.

Kumar had initially moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the declaration of Chandigarh mayoral result on January 30. After not getting any interim relief, he moved the Supreme Court for quashing the election of the BJP candidate as the mayor.

The Chandigarh administration on Tuesday had placed a formal schedule regarding the polling for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor before the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Congress councillors Gabi and Devi, who were the candidates for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, had moved the high court, challenging the notification of the Chandigarh deputy commissioner for conducting the polls for these posts on February 27.

Then the Union territory administration withdrew its earlier notification and issued the fresh notification for holding the poll on March 4.

(with PTI inputs)