Ministers hold parleys in Solan for consensus on Mayor's post

Ambika Sharma

Solan, December 6

In a bid to prevent an embarrassing situation for the ruling Congress, three cabinet ministers today reached Solan to make last-ditch efforts to work out a consensus for electing the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Solan Municipal Corporation (MC) tomorrow.

Earlier, the elections to the posts could not be held on December 4 as both the Congress and the BJP councillors skipped the meeting called by the Additional Deputy Commissioner.

Though several rounds of meetings have been held at Shimla and Solan since Saturday to arrive upon a consensus, little success was achieved. The Congress has the majority with nine councillors, who are split into two groups.

Both do not see eye to eye and are stiffly opposed to supporting each other. Four councillors had connived with the seven BJP councillors to move a no-confidence motion against the Mayor Punam Grover and Deputy Mayor Rajeev Kaura in October 2022. Since the party failed to act against these four councillors, the group led by the Mayor was stiffly opposed to supporting them now. This has brought the Congress on the back foot.

The Congress’ desperation to retain the two posts was clear from the fact that it had granted the right to vote to the local MLA a few days ago despite having the majority of councillors. The election was “deliberately” timed for December 7 when a BJP councillor was to leave Solan for an exigency. The earlier date of December 5 was conveniently postponed on a flimsy pretext.

The Cabinet ministers, comprising Harshwardhan Chauhan, Vikramaditya Singh and the local minister DR Shandil, were holding discussions to resolve the differences between the two groups till late in the evening.

All seven BJP councillors were huddled together to ensure that there was no poaching by the Congress in case no consensus was arrived upon between them. The BJP was keenly watching the situation with its senior leaders camping in Solan. A lone Independent councillor was keenly watching the happenings.

The BJP councillors had been receiving calls from both factions of the Congress to forge an alliance with them. The Opposition BJP had nothing to lose as it held none of the two posts though the infighting in the Congress could help it secure at least the post of the Deputy Mayor.

Cong on the back foot

• The Congress has the majority with nine councillors, who are split into two groups
• Four councillors had connived with the seven BJP councillors to move a no-confidence motion against Mayor Punam Grover and Deputy Mayor Rajeev Kaura in October 2022
• Since the party failed to take action against these four councillors, the faction led by the Mayor is stiffly opposed to supporting them now