City to get its 24th Mayor today

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 9

Who will be the Municipal Corporation’s 24th Mayor – Raj Bala Malik of the ruling BJP or Gurbax Rawat of the Congress? The answer will be out after 27-member House votes tomorrow.

Besides the Mayor, the new Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor will be elected in a secret polling. Though the BJP, which is marred with infighting and rebellion, has the absolute majority in the House, the chances of cross-voting cannot be ruled out. This is due to the fact that four other BJP Mayor contenders — councillors Asha Jaswal, Heera Negi, Chanderwati Shukla and Sunita Dhawan — gave a dinner hosted by Raj Bala, the party’s Mayor nominee, a miss yesterday. It was said to be Raj Bala’s dinner diplomacy for wooing the party councillors.

Shukla and Negi had expressed their disappointment after the BJP declared Raj Bala’s name as its candidate for the post of Mayor.

Khattar, Tandon meet party councillors

In view of the situation, the party held a special meeting with all councillors in the afternoon today. City BJP president Sanjay Tandon held discussion with councillors to ensure nobody

goes against the party line and votes for the Congress candidate or deliberately votes in a way that the vote gets cancelled. MP Kirron Kher and organisation secretary Dinesh Kumar were also present at the meeting.

After this meeting, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had a high tea with the councillors whom he asked to vote for the party nominee.

Sources said councillors were asked by a senior BJP leader to show proof of whom they voted for.

“Given our stout majority in the MC House, there is no way that we lose the polls.

But if even a few BJP councillors vote in favour of the opposition candidate, it will give the Congress ammunition to attack us. It will also send a wrong message in the party,” said a senior BJP leader.

Don’t allow gadgets during polling: Cong to Adviser

Suspecting that BJP councillors may use mobile phone or pen cameras during the election, the Congress on Thursday wrote to the UT Adviser to ensure secrecy in polling. “You are requested to ensure secrecy by not allowing any gadget like mobile phone or pen camera as per the rules,” said the communication. “It has come to our knowledge that five to six councillors have been asked to click pictures to show they voted for the party candidate,” claimed a Congress councillor. “It will be a murder of democracy. If such incident comes to light, then an FIR should be registered against the councillor concerned,” said Devinder Singh Babla, Leader of the Opposition in the MC House.

The Mayor nominees

Raj Bala Malik: She was first elected councillor in the MC House in 2011 and became the Mayor the very next year as the Congress candidate. In 2016, she shifted to the BJP. A lawyer herself, she is married to RK Malik, a senior advocate in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Gurbax Rawat: She was first elected councillor in 2011 and got re-elected in 2016. The 39-year-old Congress leader is an IT professional and has done Masters in Computer Science. She was the Deputy Mayor in 2015.

Candidates for other posts

Ravi Kant Sharma of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will take on Sheela Phool Singh of the Congress for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor while Jagtar Singh of the ruling BJP will compete with Ravinder Gujral of the party in the Opposition for the post of Deputy Mayor.

BJP has the numbers

Total votes 27

Elected councillors 26

BJP 20

Congress 5

SAD (BJP ally) 1

Ex officio member (MP) 1