Day before re-polling for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar shows inability to take charge as Chandigarh mayor

Sandeep Rana

Chandigarh, February 26

In another twist to the ongoing Chandigarh MC politics, a day before re-polling for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, Kuldeep Kumar, who had announced to take charge as mayor at 11.30 am on Monday, showed his inability citing personal reasons.

The Supreme Court had declared him winner on February 20.

The mayor is the presiding officer for the two polls.

Sources said it could be a trick for delaying the re-polls to be held on Tuesday.

Elections may be postponed now as the presiding officer has not taken the charge.

Now, the Aam Aadmi Party seems to be toeing the same line as the BJP did. Previous presiding officer Anil Masih on the day of election had reported that he was “unwell” and the mayoral poll had to be postponed.

An AAP leader said MP Sandeep Pathak is scheduled to be in Chandigarh on Monday following which they will take the next call.

Meanwhile, all BJP councillors are in a resort in Morni while three AAP councillors who joined the BJP a few days back are said to be in Gurugram. They are out of reach.

It could be the AAP’s strategy to delay the polls so that those AAP councillors could be brought back and voting numbers, which are currently in favour of the BJP, could be impacted.