Mayoral election on Jan 24
In spite of the demand of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to hold the mayoral poll on February 19, the UT Administration today issued a notification for the elections to the post of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor, and Deputy Mayor on January 24.
The elections will be held at 11 am in the Assembly Hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) building. A nominated councillor, Dr Ramneek Singh Bedi, has been appointed presiding officer.
The elected councillors can file their nominations for the three positions by January 20.
In the 35-member MC House, the BJP has 14 councillors, AAP 13 and the Congress seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor. The House also has an ex-officio member, Congress MP Manish Tewari, who has voting right.
Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav visited the MC office today to review the poll arrangements. While interacting with senior officials, the DC emphasised the importance of a fair, transparent, and efficient election process.
Earlier, AAP had demanded that the elections be held on February 19, when the incumbent Mayor’s term comes to an end. The party also demanded that the elections be held by show of hands, instead of secret ballot. Under Section 38 (1) of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976, the term of the Mayor is of one year.
The last mayoral elections were mired in controversy, after presiding officer Anil Masih was accused of tampering with votes and rejecting those polled in favour of the AAP-Congress coalition. He had declared BJP’s Manoj Sonkar as mayor on January 30 last year. Later, the Supreme Court overturned the result, declaring Kuldeep Kumar of AAP Mayor.
Meanwhile, the city Congress objected to the release of the poll notification without waiting for the approval to the House resolution providing for amendment to regulations 6(6-16) of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulations, 1996, by the Administrator.
Rajiv Sharma, chief spokesperson of the city Congress, stated that the regulation 6 (6-16) provided that when two or more candidates contest any of the Mayoral elections, the voting will be done by secret ballot. In order to bring transparency in the election process, the MC House passed a resolution in October 2024 providing for holding the mayoral poll by show of hands. Residents had welcomed the resolution and termed it a bold step aimed at cleansing the MC election process, but the UT Administrator did not grant the mandatory approval to the resolution due to relentless pressure by the BJP.
AAP to move court
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will move court against the mayoral poll notification. City AAP co-incharge Dr SS Ahluwalia said by putting pressure on the government officials, the one-year tenure of the Mayor was reduced to 11 months. The tenure of Mayor Kuldeep Kumar will end on February 19, but the BJP ended his tenure a month ago as part of a conspiracy.
