Cross-voting in Solan mayoral poll leaves Congress shocked

Ambika Sharma

Solan,December 8

Cross-voting by a Congress councillor in favour of the BJP’s candidate for the Deputy Mayor’s post in the election held here last evening has left the ruling party shocked. The nine Congress councillors were divided into two factions of four and five councillors and the latter had the backing of Health and Family Welfare Minister DR Shandil.

The twist

• The rebel Congress faction, led by the outgoing Mayor Punam Grover, openly lent support to Mira Anand, BJP’s candidate for the Deputy Mayor’s post
• Congress dissident candidate Usha Sharma won the Mayor’s post by polling 11 votes while BJP’s Mira Anand won the Deputy Mayor’s poll by securing 12 votes
• One extra vote secured by Mira was said to have come from the Congress faction led by Shandil

The Congress candidate for the mayoral post, Sardar Singh, who was part of the five-member faction, polled six votes while its candidate for the Deputy Mayor’s post, Sangeeta Thakur, got only five votes. Since local MLA Shandil was also permitted to vote, the group supported by him had six votes in all.

The rebel Congress faction, led by outgoing Mayor Punam Grover, openly supported Mira Anand, BJP candidate for the Deputy Mayor’s post.

Congress dissident Usha Sharma won the Mayor’s post by polling 11 votes while BJP’s Mira Anand won the Deputy Mayor’s post by securing 12 votes. One extra vote secured by Mira was said to have come from the Congress faction led by Shandil.

This cross-voting proved that the Congress councillors led by Cabinet minister Shandil also had resentment against their official candidate. Owing to this, a councillor from this group connived with the BJP to support their candidate for the Deputy Mayor’s post. It remains to be seen if the Congress will be able to identify the black sheep in the group.

Earlier, despite a series of marathon meetings held by three Cabinet ministers led by Shandil, no consensus could be brought about between the two faction for the two posts. As a result, the official candidates proposed for both posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor faced a drubbing in the election.

Efforts to intimidate the four rival Congress faction councillors to secure their vote for the official candidates failed to bear fruit.