Chandigarh Mayoral Polls: In a setback for the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress alliance in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, three AAP councillors joined the BJP yesterday ahead of the crucial hearing in the Supreme Court today. Not only this, Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar also resigned from the post paving the way for the fresh mayoral polls. The AAP and Congress had approached the apex court challenging the presiding officer's decision to declare Sonkar as the winning candidate after 8 opposition ballots were rejected. The three councillors are Gurcharanjit Singh Kala, Neha and Poonum Devi. All the three leaders accused AAP of making false promises and said that they joined the saffron party as they are inspired by the works of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


BJP-SAD vs AAP-Congress


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In the house of 35 members, the BJP has a total of 15 votes in the Municipal Corporation House including 14 councillors and ex officio members i.e. an MP - Kiron Kher. The AAP has 13 councillors, while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor in the House. The AAP and Congress together had 20 votes but since the 8 votes were declared invalid during the January 30 polls, the BJP's mayoral candidate Sonkar emerged as winner. AAP-Congress alleged foul play by the presiding officer and moved to the SC after it got no relief from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.


Now, with the three AAP councillors jumping ship, the BJP is having 19 votes with the help of Shiromani Akali Dal while the AAP-Congress alliance will have 17 votes.


Hearing In Supreme Court Today


The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which alleged that the BJP tampered with the ballots during the January 30 Chandigarh mayoral poll. In its previous hearing, the Supreme Court took a stringent view of the alleged malpractice by presiding officer Anil Masih saying that the returning officer needs to be prosecuted for tampering with the ballots.


Previous Mayoral Polls


In January 2023 mayoral polls, a total of 29 votes were cast, leading to Anup Gupta from the BJP securing victory in the mayoral election by defeating Jasbir Singh Laddi from the Aam Aadmi Party with a narrow margin of one vote. Gupta garnered 15 votes, while Singh managed to secure 14. Notably, the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal refrained from participating in the voting process. Similarly, in the year 2022, the BJP candidate emerged victorious once again by a slim margin of one vote, as one vote was invalidated due to various reasons.