AAP councillor’s switch to Cong changes UT political power equations; BJP has upper hand

In the 2021 municipal corporation (MC) election, Chandigarh had elected 14 councillors from AAP, 12 from BJP, and eight from Congress. A lone councillor was from Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Once the poll was done, several parties tried to poach AAP’s elected representatives, but nothing could be materialised.

As AAP had emerged the single-largest party in the MC, BJP, then, tried its best to win the mayoral election in January 2022, and its efforts were fruitful as Congress councillor Harpreet Babla joined hands with BJP, taking their tally to 13. And as they had a vote from MP – who is the ex officio member of the General House – there was supposed to be a tie with 14 each between AAP and BJP, however one vote of the AAP was declared invalid and BJP won the poll.

A few months into 2022, another Congress councillor Gurcharan Jeet Singh Kala shifted to BJP, making the saffron party match its councillors’ number with AAP. Again, BJP won in the mayoral polls 15- 14 in 2023.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior BJP leader told The Indian Express that they would further try “to break AAP numbers in the coming days”.

Congress to AAP, then again to Congress

Mehta and her husband Yadvinder Mehta were originally from Congress. They then criticised the Congress leaders and their style of working before moving to the AAP.

Later, Taruna got the AAP ticket in 2021 for the MC elections, in which she emerged victorious. Now more than a year after the election, Mehta has again switched to Congress.

Decoding the switch

Interestingly, sources said, knowing that Mehta wanted to switch sides, BJP too was trying to bring her in to the fold. A message of Congress leader Pawan Bansal to hold a press conference the next day spread so widely that BJP leaders started making efforts to persuade Mehta to join BJP.

However, before BJP could reach her residence, a Congress leader got to know, and without waiting for the press conference next day, immediately Congressmen rushed to Mehta to get her inducted again in Congress.