MC elections: Talks on between Congress, BJP to form House

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is leaving no stone unturned to form the Municipal Corporation House in Ludhiana and at the same time, the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are also making every effort to change the scenario. However, one Independent candidate on Monday joined AAP.

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Independent candidate from Ward 11 Rani Chaudhary joined AAP, taking its total count of seats to 42. Meanwhile, the Congress, with the second highest seat count in Ludhiana, and the BJP are also exploring the possibility of joining hands with each other to eliminate AAP from the scene. The Congress has 30 seats and BJP has 19 and together, they have secured 49 seats. Both parties are claiming support of one Independent each, which will take the total number to 51.

Sanjay Talwar, president of the District Congress Committee, said talks were on now in this regard and Congress councillors were having a word with BJP councillors.

“Things can be finalised if both parties agree to terms at the local level. Once everybody agrees, we will put a request forward to the party high command for approval. The Mayor will be from the Congress as we have more number of councillors,” he said.

Talwar added that the decision to make an alliance with the BJP had been taken keeping in view the interest of the city and they would never enter into alliance with AAP.

“It was only under the pressure of the Supreme Court that the elections to the municipal corporations were held, otherwise AAP was not interested in conducting the poll. How can you expect development from the government which was not interested in holding the elections. The corporation was without House for the past 18 months,” the Congress leader said.

Rajneesh Dhiman, district BJP chief, said they were ready to take the decision keeping in view development of the city.

“We are yet to have a word with the party high command in this regard and the final decision will be taken by them. The Mayor of the House will be from the BJP,” he said.

According to the sources, one Independent candidate is showing inclination towards the Congress, one towards the BJP and one today joined AAP. In yet another possibility, all three parties, the Congress, BJP and SAD, without Independents, can also prove majority by taking the count to 51 members. If, the Congress and BJP together form the House, history will be repeated after 32 years, when the first MC elections were held in 1992 and the Congress had allied with the BJP. Then, the BJP has more seats but it had failed to get the majority and the Congress had the second highest number of councillors. Later, both parties had formed an alliance. Following which, Chaudhary Sat Prakash of the BJP was appointed the first Mayor of the city.

After a series of talks with the AAP leadership, one Independent candidate, who won from Ward 11, on Monday joined AAP. She joined the party in the presence of Cabinet Minister Malkit Singh Bhullar and other MLAs of the ruling party.

Earlier, AAP had secured only 41 seats and they needed 48 to prove majority and make Mayor from its own party. Party leadership is already holding talks with the remaining two Independents, Ratanjit Kaur from Ward 1 and Monica Jaggi from Ward 83, but the duo have yet to announce their support to AAP.

Sources said besides the two Independent councillors, AAP leaders had also been approaching winning candidates of the BJP and Congress and it was likely that some of them might join them.

After oath taken by all candidates, the Mayor will be elected.  The party with the highest number of seats will be offered to form the House. Ludhiana has 95 wards and AAP has won 42 seats and is short of six seats to prove majority. In addition to 95 councillors, there are also seven urban MLAs, who are ex-officio members and part of the House and are also allowed to vote. In case votes of all seven MLAs (all from AAP) are added, the total members will be 102 (95 councillors plus seven MLAs) and then, 51 members would be required to elect the new Mayor. In this scenario also, AAP will require more members to prove their majority in the House and elect its Mayor.