With 9 Inds, Cong gets majority in Moga

Tribune News Service

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Moga, February 18

A day after the results of the Moga Municipal Corporation elections were declared, nine Independent councillors joined the ruling Congress on Thursday.

The Congress had got 20 seats in a House of 50 wards. The ruling party was short of six councillors to get a majority. The SAD got 15 seats, Independents 10, AAP four and BJP one. Local Congress MLA Dr Harjot Kamal’s wife Dr Rajinder Kaur had lost the election.

In an overnight exercise, the Congress managed to woo at least nine Independent councillors who joined the party in the presence of PPCC president Sunil Jakhar in Chandigarh.

Dr Harjot Kamal said with today’s development, the Congress had the support of 29 councillors. “Now, with a majority, we will elect our own mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor,” he said.

The Independents who joined the Congress include Jaspreet Singh, alias Vicky Sarpanch, Gurpreet Singh Sachdeva, Surinder Singh Goga, Reema Sood, Payal Garg, Sukhbinder Kaur, Buta Singh, Tirath Ram and Parveen Makkar.

The MLA claimed he had recommended party tickets to all Independent councillors but they were denied these owing to factionalism in the party’s local unit. “Had they been given the party tickets, the fate of the Congress would have been different,” he said.