Congress infighting delays Solan Mayoral election schedule

Ambika Sharma

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Solan, November 27

Holding elections for the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Solan Municipal Corporation (MC) has turned out to be a major challenge for the ruling Congress party as infighting within its councillors is delaying the declaration of polling date.

Even after granting voting rights to the local MLA by amending the Section 4 of the HP Municipal Corporation Act, 1994, the Congress was not confident that it would retain the two posts. This was clear from the fact that despite the issuance of the notification on November 23, the polling dates are yet to be announced.

The two-and-a-half year tenure of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor ended in mid-October. A clarification regarding the MLAs having voting rights was sought by the Deputy Commissioner from the state government on October 12. On October 21, the state government had clarified that the MLAs were only councillors with no voting rights.

The state government then issued an amendment on November 23 after the dates for holding the elections in Mandi and Palampur MCs had been announced. Calling the state government’s move anti-democratic, BJP state president Rajiv Bindal said, “The state government is not operating as per law. It is acting at its own whims and fancies.”

He lamented, “By this logic, the MLAs can also become Mayors of the civic bodies and there would be no difference in the election of a Mayor and an MLA.”

The Congress has a majority of nine of the 17 councillors who were vertically divided into two groups. The rapprochement between the two groups failed to yield any positive result as the group led by the outgoing Mayor, Punam Grover, is unhappy with the other group for bringing a no-confidence motion against her and Deputy Mayor Rajeev Kaura in October 2022.

Despite bringing the issue in the notice of various senior leaders, the party failed to take any step to discipline the erring faction comprising four councillors, who had the support of local minister DR Shandil.

Even if Shandil participates in the Mayor and Deputy Mayor polls after the recent amendment, the Congress would fail to secure a majority and retain the two posts until the other faction is placated.

In a last ditch effort to placate the two warring groups, the Pradesh Congress Committee president recently appointed two Cabinet Ministers as the observers. They are slated to meet the councillors early next week to bring about a consensus on the two posts. It is likely that the elections would be announced following the meeting so that the ruling Congress does not face an embarrassing situation in the polls.

The seven BJP councillors were seen hobnobbing with the Congress councillors though it had adopted the wait-and-watch policy.

Voting rights to MLA anti-democratic

The state government’s move to give voting rights to local MLA is anti-democratic. It is not operating as per law. The government is acting at its own whims and fancies. By this logic, the MLAs can also become Mayors of the civic bodies and there would be no difference in the election of a Mayor and an MLA. Rajiv Bindal , bjp state president