Chandigarh: BJP shifts councillors to Morni, 3 turncoats stay put in Gurugram

Sandeep Rana

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Chandigarh, February 25

Two days ahead of repolling for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, the BJP, in an attempt to keep its flock together, has shifted all its councillors to Morni, while three AAP councillors, who recently joined the saffron party, continue to be in Gurugram. The BJP has a clear edge when it comes to numbers in the MC House.

According to information, the party councillors were taken to a Morni resort yesterday after the marriage of BJP councillor Maheshinder Singh Sidhu at Lake Club here. A few of them were allowed to attend the wedding. All councillors are expected to return to the city on Monday. “We are only trying to keep our councillors united. Some of them were being approached by other parties. So, we do not want to leave any chance as we have just one vote more than the total votes of the Congress and AAP,” said a party leader.

Three AAP councillors, Neha Musawat, Poonam and Gurcharanjit Singh (Kala), who joined the BJP on February 18 in Delhi, continue to be in Gurugram.

“We have got information that AAP is trying to approach them through their families or people close to them. So, we are not taking any chances. They will return on Monday,” said another leader. The three councillors have been unreachable since they went to Delhi to join the BJP. Their phone numbers are either switched off or out of network.

Meanwhile, councillors of AAP and the Congress, who earlier used to be camping out of the city ahead of the mayoral polls, are staying put in the city. “The BJP leaders used to say that we were scared of our leaders joining them. Why have they fled the city now?” said Congress councillor Gurpreet Singh Gabi.

Refusing to confirm the councillors are out of the city, BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra said, “We have not forcibly kept our councillors out of station like them.”

On January 30, when the BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was declared winner to the Mayor’s post after eight votes were wrongly declared invalid by presiding officer Anil Masih, Opposition councillors boycotted the elections to the other two posts, which are conducted by Mayor.

The BJP councillors, Kuljit Singh and Rajinder Sharma, were declared winners against Congress’ councillors and alliance nominees Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi to the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, respectively.