Journalism of Courage
As the Chandigarh Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) announced it would abstain itself from voting, battle lines were drawn between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday for the mayoral elections. A candidate will now need 15 votes to make mayor, as the Congress had six votes, while the SAD had one. The AAP has 14 votes, but the BJP will have 15 (14+1 vote from the Member of Parliament – the ex officio vote). However, in such a scenario, cross-voting is also a possibility.
The new mayor will be succeeding Sarabjit Kaur. The elections will be held at 11am at the Assembly Hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. AAP’s Jasbir Singh would be fighting it out with BJP’s Anup Gupta for the post of mayor while for the post of the senior deputy mayor, BJP’s Kanwarjeet Rana will be fighting it out AAP’s Taruna Mehta. For the post of deputy mayor, it will be a contest between AAP’s Suman Sharma and BJP’s Harjit Singh. On the day of nominations, Congress had said that they would opt out of the race and will not file any nominations. However, they said they would decide whether they would abstain from voting for others or not.
BJP and AAP leaders held meetings with their respective councillors asking them to behave in a united manner specifically when the 2024 elections are scheduled next year. However, cross voting remains an issue, a within BJP there are senior councillors who are not happy with the party declaring new comer Gupta as candidate.
To be elected mayor, a candidate will need to secure at least 19 votes. Last year, the BJP’s mayoral candidate, Sarabjit Kaur, was declared winner after one vote cast by the AAP was declared invalid.
Know your candidates
Jasbir Singh (AAP)
AAP’s mayoral candidate Jasbir Singh is a 38-year-old businessman. He was elected last year from Ward 21, Sector 47, in Faidan. He is a graduate. Jasbir was a vocal critic of the ‘Study Tour’ plans sanctioned by the erstwhile Mayor Sarabjit Kaur for councillors to visit Goa and Mumbai to study waste processing units and open spoke against the same in the general House meetings.
Anup Gupta (BJP)
BJP candidate Anup Gupta, too, is a 38-year-old businessman. He was elected as a first time councillor in 2021 from Ward 11 — that covers sectors 18,19 and 21. Known to be close to all top BJP leaders in UT — including Sanjay Tandon, and Arun Sood — as well as MP Kirron Kher, Anup served as the Deputy Mayor under Sarabjit Kaur, besides holding the post of BJP secretary. Anup is a BCom as well as a law graduate.
