Centre rules out directly elected Mayor for Chandigarh, MP’s Bill still on track

The Centre today made it clear in Parliament that it is not considering any proposal to give Chandigarh a directly elected Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor or Deputy Mayor with a fixed five-year tenure.

Responding to a question by Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said there was “no such proposal under consideration”, also ruling out any move to reallocate powers between the UT Administration and the Municipal Corporation or introduce a Haryana-style direct-election model for the city’s top civic posts.

The government further clarified that Finance Commission revenue-sharing recommendations do not apply to Chandigarh, as the UT’s Municipal Corporation is funded through grants from the Union Budget.

The reply by Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai immediately triggered sharp political and administrative ripples in the city.

Reacting to the Centre’s stand, MP Manish Tewari said that he found the situation “perplexing if not confusing”, pointing out that Chandigarh Administration officials were simultaneously in Delhi discussing pending issues, including the very proposal for increasing the Mayor’s term to five years.

He underlined that the government’s response “has no impact whatsoever” on the Private Member Bill he introduced last week, which seeks a five-year, directly elected Mayor and sweeping reforms to shift major governance powers from the UT Administrator to an elected Mayor-in-Council. “The Bill stands,” he said.

Tewari’s amendment Bill, introduced on December 5, aims to end Chandigarh’s three-decade-old practice of electing its Mayor annually — a model that has long been criticised for instability, short-termism and allegations of horse-trading.

The Bill seeks direct election of the top three civic posts by all electors, a five-year term co-terminus with the Municipal Corporation, anti-defection safeguards for councillors, and transfer of major administrative powers and officer oversight from the Administrator to an elected Mayor. It also proposes a structural shift to bring all non-law-and-order departments under a Mayor-in-Council, marking the most ambitious reform attempt in the MC’s history.

The irony of timing has sharpened the debate. While the MP’s Bill seeks to realign Chandigarh with the original Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 — where mayors have five-year terms — MHA’s reply indicates that the Union Government has no parallel proposal of its own. Legal experts say Private Member Bills rarely pass, but they can force national attention on long-standing governance anomalies.

MHA’s stand therefore does not alter the Bill’s legislative validity, even though the odds of its passage remain slim.

The question of Chandigarh’s governance structure has been simmering for decades. The UT adopted the Punjab municipal law in 1994 but, unlike Punjab, restricted its Mayor’s tenure to one year, creating an annual election cycle unique in the country. Over the years, this has produced recurring political stand-offs and frequent administrative discontinuity. With the city set to complete 30 years under the current framework in 2026, pressure for structural change has intensified.

The fresh push began with Tewari’s Bill and was amplified recently by former Chandigarh MP and Additional Solicitor General of India Satya Pal Jain, who supported the idea of a five-year, directly elected Mayor but insisted that any reform must be backed by consensus among all stakeholders. He also emphasised that only a Central Government-driven amendment, not a Private Member Bill, can realistically reshape Chandigarh’s governance law.

Today’s MHA reply has now put the spotlight back on the political, constitutional and administrative crossroads at which Chandigarh stands. With no government proposal on the table, a Private Member Bill unlikely to move forward soon, and stakeholders divided, the future of the city’s mayoral system — and its broader governance architecture — remains unresolved. What is clear is that Chandigarh’s long-running debate over autonomy, accountability and civic leadership is far from over.