In a significant victory, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured both the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor seats in Chandigarh, dealing a blow to the INDIA bloc and Congress.
Kuljeet Singh Sandhu of the BJP won the election for Senior Deputy Mayor with 19 votes, defeating INDIA bloc candidate Gurpreet Singh Gabi. The BJP garnered 19 votes, while the INDIA bloc (Congress + AAP) received 16 votes, with one vote declared invalid.
For the Deputy Mayor position, Rajendra Kumar Sharma of the BJP clinched victory with 19 votes, while the opposition secured 17 votes.
The BJP-led bloc, which initially had 14 seats in the 35-member Chandigarh Municipality, saw a boost in strength on February 19 when three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors joined the BJP. These councillors – Punam Devi, Neha Musawat, and Gurcharan Kala – joined the BJP in Delhi in the presence of party National General Secretary Vinod Tawde. The BJP also enjoys the support of the sole Akali Dal councillor.
Punjab BJP President Sunil Jakhar remarked on the victory, stating, “The whole problem is not of Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the problem lies in the coalition of AAP and Congress in Punjab. They are misleading the people of Punjab… BJP has numbers. But whatever it is should happen systematically…”
Earlier, the Supreme Court intervened in the Chandigarh mayoral polls, declaring AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar as the winner. The court found that the Returning Officer had wrongly invalidated eight ballots cast in favour of Kuldeep Kumar, thereby quashing the decision to declare BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Sonkar as Chandigarh Mayor on January 30.
