Talks on for coalition to form new House
Though the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) emerged as the party with the largest share of seats, it fell short of seven seats to prove its majority in the MC elections. Since no party has the absolute majority, talks are on for coalition to form the next MC House in Ludhiana and now the big question is, from which party will be the next Mayor of Ludhiana?
The next Mayor will be chosen by coalition. Since AAP has the highest majority, the Mayor will most likely be from AAP but the posts of Deputy Mayor and Senior Deputy Mayor can go to the party with whom the coalition will be done.
Madan Lal Bagga, MLA, North, said the people have again chosen AAP. “We are confident of forming the House and hopeful that we will garner support. Many winning candidates are in contact with us and soon, we will form the House. The main aim is the development of Ludhiana and keeping this in mind, like- minded people will get together to form the MC House,” he said.
Randhir Sibia, husband of Independent candidate Ratanjit Kaur Sibia, came to meet Bagga on Sunday.
While West MLA Gurpreet Gogi’s wife Dr Sukhchain Kaur and Central MLA Ashok Prashar’s wife Meenu Prashar lost the elections from Ward 61 and 77, respectively, Bagga’s son Aman Bagga Khurana won from Ward 94 defeating INC’s Resham Singh and AAP Atam Nagar MLA Kulwant Singh Sidhu’s son Yuvraj Singh Sidhu won from Ward 50 by defeating INC candidate Parik Sharma.
Now, both Bagga and Sidhu are in the race for the post of Mayor while the name of senior leader Amrit Varsha Rampal, who is a close aide of Gogi, is also making rounds.
Low turnout
In the 2018 elections, Ludhiana witnessed 59.14 per cent polling while this year, it dropped to 46.95 per cent. The new ward delimitation, due to which voters were unable to find their names in the voters’ lists, is also being cited as one of the reasons behind the low turnout. Many voters were unable to find their names in the lists when they went to cast their votes at polling booths. Voter slips were also not distributed this time, which led to the chaos.
Big feat for BJP: Bittu
BJP MP Ravneet Singh Bittu said both Gogi and Parashar’s wives have lost the elections, which clearly indicates people’s bent of mind. Earlier, the BJP had coalition with the SAD and it got 10 seats while this was the first time that it fought alone and managed to win 19 seats in the Ludhiana MC poll, which is a big achievement. The Congress came down to 30 from 63 and these figures clearly indicate that the BJP was getting stronger in the city.
Will never join hands with AAP, says Warring
PPCC president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said the Congress would never join hands with AAP. “We have 30 seats and there are many more possibilities and the party will also present claim to form the House,” he said.
Women to play major role
This time, 50 per cent seats were reserved for women and they managed a share of 53 per cent of the seats in the elections. Of the total 95 seats, 51 women candidates have won. Now, the question is they will be working independently or will just remain as a face behind their husbands who will run the show. Of the 51 women candidates who won the elections, 21 are homemakers. Many wards were reserved for women, which were represented by men earlier, due to ward delimitation this time. In many such cases, wives of former councillors fought the elections.
Former INC MLA Surinder Dawar’s daughter-in-law Shalu Dawar won from Ward 85 by defeating AAP’s Sonaf while Deepika Bhalla, wife of former councillor Gagandeep Sunny Bhalla, a close aide of Ashu, won from Ward 69 by defeating BJP’s Mala Dhanda.
BJP leader Inder Aggarwal’s wife Manju Gupta won from Ward 81 by defeating INC’s Pooja Sharma and INC leader Pankaj Sharma’s wife Sonal Sharma won from Ward 59 by defeating AAP’s Manpreet Kaur.
