Chandigarh mayoral poll: AAP, Congress tie-up suspense on, last day of nominations today

The suspense over a tie-up between the Congress and the AAP for the mayoral elections continued a day before the last date for filing of nominations for the top three posts in the Municipal Corporation.

Despite hectic activities within the two parties on the issue of possible “adjustment” in the mayoral election, their leaders did not make any formal announcement till late on Wednesday evening.

The Congress held a nearly two-hour discussion on the matter in the presence of the party’s national observer but failed to take a call on the possible alliance.

City Congress president HS Lucky said they held a meeting of the councillors in the presence of national observer Chetan Chauhan and the issue of alliance was discussed at length. The views of the councillors were taken. They were going to hold another meeting at 10 am on Thursday, he added.

Sources said a majority of Congress councillors raised concerns over fighting the mayoral elections jointly with AAP. A party councillor on the condition of anonymity said when a decision had already been taken to contest the next MC elections independently, there was no reason to forge any kind of “adjustment” or “alliance” with AAP . He said what they would say to voters against AAP candidates in the next MC election if they fought the mayoral elections “together”.

Vijay Pal Singh, president, city AAP, said the party would reveal its strategy on Thursday.

However, sources said an understanding had been reached that the AAP would announce its candidate for the post of Mayor on Thursday. A senior national leader of the party is likely to be present at the time the announcement would be made.

Not taking any risk, AAP has also decided to take all its councillors to a resort in Punjab where they will stay till the day of election, January 29. The party took the decision to prevent further poaching of councillors by the BJP.

AAP councillors Yogesh Dhingra, Jasbir Singh Ladi, Damanpreet Singh, Hardeep Singh and Ram Chandra Yadav are possible contenders for the mayor’s post.

Meanwhile, Vinod Tawde, national general secretary of BJP, will announce the names of the candidates for the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor on Thursday. Councillors Mahesh Inder Singh Sidhu, Saurabh Joshi, Kanwarjeet Sigh Rana and Dalip Sharma are the front runners for the BJP’s mayor candidature.

The BJP has 18 councillors in the 35-member MC House, Congress six and AAP 11. The local MLA, Manish Tewari of Congress, also has one vote. Nineteen votes are required to win the election, which will be held by a show of hands this time.