Chandigarh MC poll results: AAP's 14-seat debut win stuns big parties

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 27

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged as the single largest party in its MC poll debut by winning 14 seats even as the results threw up a hung House.

The ruling BJP could win only 12 seats and the Congress remained on third position with eight seats. The SAD retained its single sitting councillor’s seat while its alliance partner BSP drew a blank. Though the Congress remained at the third spot, it got the highest vote percentage. The grand old party polled 1,14,942 votes (29.79% vote share). While the ruling party had the second highest share in voting (1,13,045 votes with 29.30% vote share), AAP, which topped the seat tally, had the lowest voting share among the top three parties. It got 1,04,471 votes with 27.08% vote share.

Also, Ward No. 10 Congress candidate Harpreet Kaur Babla, wife of Leader of the Opposition Devinder Singh Babla, won from the woman-reserved seat with the highest margin of 3,103 votes, defeating Rashi Bhasin of the ruling party.

Another Congress candidate from Ward Number 34, Gurpeet Singh, won with the lowest margin of nine votes. He got the better of BJP’s Bhupinder Sharma. Similarly, Senior Deputy Mayor and BJP candidate from Ward Number 2 Maheshinder Singh Sidhu could save his seat by the second lowest margin of 11 votes, beating his arch-rival Harmohinder Singh Lucky of the Congress. Mayor Ravi Kant Sharma, two former BJP mayors Davesh Moudgil and Rajesh Kalia, the son of the city Congress chief and the AAP’s election campaign committee chairman were among the prominent losers. The wives of some sitting councillors also tasted defeat.

The richest candidate in the fray, BJP’s Anup Gupta, defeated Omkar Singh Aulakh by 167 votes from Ward Number 11. Gupta, along with his wife, had declared assets worth Rs45 crore in his nomination papers.

Highest winning margins

• Ward Number 10: Harpreet Kaur Babla (Congress) defeats Rashi Bhasin (BJP) by 3,103 votes
• Ward Number 27: Gurbax Rawat (Congress) beats Ravinder Singh Rawat (BJP) by 2,862 votes

Close contests

• Ward Number 34: Gurpeet Singh (Congress) beats Bhupinder Sharma by nine votes
• Ward Number 2: Maheshinder Singh Sidhu (BJP) defeats Harmohinder Singh Lucky (Congress) by 11 votes

“People are done with the BJP as well as the Congress. They wanted a third alternative and found it in Arvind Kejriwal. — Prem Garg, AAP city chief

“We have 13 votes (with MP’s vote). Councillors should support our mayoral candidate as we can give a stable govt. — Arun Sood, BJP president

“If AAP is able to have its Mayor, it will never be in a position to fulfil its promises of freebies, as the Admn will not support it. — S Chawla, Cong chief

60.7% of 6,33,475 lakh voters voted for 203 candidates