Cong councillor Gurbax Rawat joins BJP ahead of mayoral poll
Ahead of the January 30 mayoral election, three-time Congress Councillor Gurbax Rawat today joined the BJP in the presence of party’s Chandigarh unit president Jatinder Pal Malhotra and senior leader Sanjay Tandon.
Associated with the Congress for 21 years, Rawat was a member of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). Her joining the party will strengthen the BJP, which now has 16 votes in the 35-member Municipal Corporation House. However, the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) alliance still has 20 votes.
Gurbax Rawat, Councillor from ward number 27, reached the BJP office in Sector 33 around 2.30 pm, along with her husband Birender Singh Rawat.
BJP’s mayoral candidate Harpreet Kaur Babla and Councillors Kanwarjit Singh Rana, Bimla Dubey, Anup Gupta, Dalip Sharma and others welcomed her.
City BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra and senior leader Sanjay Tandon welcomed Rawat into the party fold. After joining, Gurbax Rawat said the way she had seen the BJP’s functioning there was already a voice from inside that the party was doing a very good job. There was discipline in the party and it was felt that only the BJP could take the city and the country forward, she added. Rawat said she will work in the BJP with more strength than she had worked with the Congress.
After Rawat joined the BJP, Malhotra targeted the AAP-Congress alliance. He said the two parties had not held a joint press conference so far. No joint meeting was held and the alliance was officially announced, he added. Councillors of both parties are also upset with this, because they are not able to understand that they are abusing each other in Delhi and are in an alliance here, he added.
Sanjay Tandon said what kind of alliance was this as they were not together even during the filing of nomination papers. No development work was done in the city during the tenure of AAP Mayor, he said, adding that the development in the city will resume after the BJP’s candidate becomes Mayor.
On the occasion, Davinder Singh Babla, city BJP vice-president and husband of BJP’s Mayoral candidate Harpreet Kaur Babla, said he had received a call from Gurbax Rawat’s husband saying he was feeling suffocated in the Congress. He added that it was the hard work of BJP leader Raj Kishore to get Rawat to join the BJP.
The BJP has fielded Harpreet Kaur Babla against AAP’s Prem Lata for the post of Mayor of the Municipal Corporation. Bimala Dubey has been nominated for the post Senior Deputy Mayor and Lakhbir Singh Billu for Deputy Mayor.
On the other hand, adhering to its pact, the Congress-AAP alliance has nominated Jasbir Singh Bunty and Taruna Mehta for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, respectively. As per the alliance arrangement, the AAP has nominated Prem Lata for the post of Mayor.
This year’s mayoral election is significant as it falls under the fourth year of the five-year rotation system, which is reserved for women candidates. The election is likely to see a tough contest, with the AAP-Congress alliance appearing to have an upper hand. Together, they command 20 votes in the 35-member House, comprising 13 votes from AAP, six from Congress, and one ex-officio vote from MP Manish Tewari.
The BJP has 16 votes and is relying on cross-voting or defections to get 19 votes needed for a majority.
The election will be held at 11 am on January 30 in the Assembly Hall of the Chandigarh MC office in Sector 17. Results will be declared soon after the voting concludes.
