BJP's Anup Gupta elected Chandigarh Mayor; all boils down to MP Kirron Kher's vote

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17

With no last-minute surprises in the form of cross-voting or invalid votes, the ruling BJP retained all three posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor by defeating rival AAP candidates by a single vote in the MC House polls today.

We are the largest party

By numbers, we were the largest party. It was AAP that has been issuing statements of aligning with Cong. Grapes seem sour for them. — Arun Sood, BJP unit chief

Cong joined hands with BJP

By not voting, Cong and SAD indirectly gave Mayor’s seat on a platter to the BJP. The Cong joined hands with ruling party. — Prem Garg, AAP unit president

BJP’s outgoing Deputy Mayor Anup Gupta (38) rose to the rank of Mayor, beating AAP candidate Jasbir Singh Laddi by lone vote.

The contest between the BJP and AAP, which had 29 votes between them, had boiled down to a single vote. While both sides had equal number of councillors i.e. 14 each, the vote of ex officio member i.e. local MP Kirron Kher did the trick for the saffron party. The ruling party won all three posts, securing its share of 15 votes, while AAP polled 14 votes in the three rounds of polling.

All six councillors of the Congress and the lone SAD member in the 36-member House abstained from voting.

BJP’s Kanwarjeet Singh Rana (32) defeated AAP’s Taruna Mehta by a single vote to get elected as Senior Deputy Mayor. Similarly, party’s Harjeet Singh (39) beat AAP’s Suman Sharma to become Deputy Mayor. All three are very young winners, which is a rarity.

Meanwhile, drama was witnessed in the later part of the day when AAP alleged one vote polled in favour of the BJP for Deputy Mayor was invalid as it was stamped outside the designated area.

The BJP levelled a similar allegation, targeting a vote polled in AAP’s favour, but Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh declared both votes valid.

Reacting to the results, AAP unit president Prem Garg alleged: “By not voting, the Congress and SAD indirectly gave the Mayor’s seat to the BJP on a platter. If they did not want to vote, they could have written NOTA. The Congress joined hands with the ruling party.”

In reply, BJP unit chief Arun Sood said: “By numbers, we were the largest party so we won. It was AAP that has been issuing statements of aligning with the Congress. And how do they know which party is going to vote for which candidate? The grapes are sour for them.”

Congress UT president HS Lucky claimed: “Both parties tried to buy our councillors. Thus, in view of these corrupt practices, we decided to stay away from voting.”

Senior leaders Sanjay Tandon (BJP) and Pardeep Chhabra (AAP) among others witness the polling from the visitors’ gallery. At one point, MP Kher and Chhabra passed remarks at each other.

Saffron party candidates poll 15, AAP 14 votes

• While both BJP and AAP had 14 councillors each, vote of ex officio member i.e. MP Kirron Kher did the trick for saffron party
• The ruling party won all three posts, securing its share of 15 votes, while AAP polled 14 votes in the three rounds of polling
• All six councillors of the Congress and the lone SAD member in the 36-member House abstained from voting

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