AAP’s Rampal Uppal ‘elected’ Mayor amid confusion, drama

Amid confusion and drama yet again, the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday claimed that its candidate Rampal Uppal was elected Mayor of the Phagwara Municipal Corporation.

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The Congress, on the other hand, claimed that its candidate Sanjeev Bugga had got 26-24 majority, but instead of accepting the verdict, AAP walked out with its own “wrong claim”.

The officials, who conducted the election and could have sorted out the confusion, chose not to respond to media queries. Soon after the polling, AAP leaders, led by state chief Aman Arora and Hoshiarpur MP Dr Raj Kumar Chabbewal, offered garlands to their winners and began celebrating.

Congress’ Phagwara MLA Balwinder Dhaliwal said it was an unfair election and the party would move the Punjab and Haryana High Court once again.

Rampal Uppal had won as Congress councillor, but he moved to AAP after the earlier convened mayoral poll on January 25. Tejpal Basra, who won on the BSP ticket and is yet to officially join AAP, was announced the Senior Deputy Mayor. Vipan Krishan, alias Vicky Sood, who was AAP’s elected councillor and had got the previous mayoral election postponed as the presiding officer, was declared the Deputy Mayor.

The mayoral election was held for the second time on Saturday with the high court ordering that the polling should be video-graphed and held in the presence of retired Justice Harbans Lal.

However, Congress MLA Dhaliwal, who also participated in the voting, alleged that despite a majority of councillors on their side, AAP had wrongly claimed having got its Mayor elected. He alleged that two AAP councillors raised their both hands, leading wrong counting.

Confident of winning, PPCC chief Amarinder S Raja Warring, LoP Partap Bajwa and general secretary PPCC Capt Sandeep Sandhu escorted all Congress councillors to the venue in a bus. The Congress later announced that it would move court again.

AAP MP Chabbewal rejected allegations of the Congress as baseless. “They have lost it and are now crying foul. We had majority and the polling was held in front of the HC-appointed judge. So, how can we be wrong?” he said.