BJP frets as repolls loom in Chandigarh, shifts councillors to Morni resort where even mobile signals are weak

The BJP had suffered a setback after the Supreme Court overturned the controversial Chandigarh mayoral election results and declared the AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar the winner.

Sources said, “The senior party leadership does not want to take any chance or risk and wants to win these two posts at any cost.”

Earlier, the councillors were lodged in the PWD rest house and Kisan Bhawan in Panchkula. However, it was assessed that “they were easily accessible”; thus, they need to be taken to Morni, where even the mobile signals are weak, said sources.

It was after BJP leaders learned that the senior AAP leaders were trying to contact three councillors who had switched over to the party from the AAP. The AAP reportedly told them they could come back to their party and “it will be a homecoming for them”.

Sources stated that the AAP leadership was telling the councillors who moved to the BJP that now “they would not have any scope as they have not even got the senior deputy mayorship or deputy mayorship candidature while in the AAP they still have considerable prospects of being considered next time”.

Sources said that at Sidhu’s wedding lunch at Lake Club, the BJP tried contacting Congress councillor Jasbir Bunty, asking him to join the BJP as there was “no future with the Congress”.

A senior AAP leader said, “I believe now the BJP will take its councillors out of India only. Look at how they are fearing and fretting that their numbers may not come down and that they have taken all of them to a place where mobile signals don’t come. We are not able to contact our councillors only.”

He added, “Now, look at what the BJP is doing. They are keeping the councillors away from their families. There can be emergencies at home. They all are not even allowed to attend their fellow councillor’s wedding.”

Sources said two Congress councillors also visited Inder Sidhu’s wedding.

A senior BJP leader, requesting anonymity, said, “We are just having several rounds of meetings with our councillors. And we will soon have two more joining us. We already have the numbers. So we need not worry. It is the AAP and the Congress that need to worry now.”

As per the the INDIA bloc deal in Chandigarh, it has been decided that the AAP will have the mayor seat while the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor seats would go to the Congress. At the same time, the Congress will have the Lok Sabha seat with AAP support.

As for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts, two Congress candidates, Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi, respectively, will be up against BJP candidates, Kuljeet Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma, respectively.

The numbers in the House

While BJP has 17 councillors and two additional votes of MP Kirron Kher and Akali councillor taking its strength to 19 in the 36-member house, the Congress-AAP combine have 17 votes. (Congress -7, AAP -10).

The newly declared Mayor Kuldeep Kumar will be the presiding authority for the polls for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor on February 27 at 10 am.

On January 30, BJP’s Manoj Sonkar won the mayor’s post after the presiding officer, Anil Masih, scrapped eight votes of the AAP-Congress.

After being elected as mayor, Sonkar conducted elections to the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts, where BJP candidates Kuljeet Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma were declared winners, respectively, with 16 votes each, after the AAP and Congress councillors staged a walk-out.

A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court ordered criminal proceedings against Masih, a former BJP office-bearer, for deliberately defacing eight ballots and lying before the court. It also said that the results of the mayor election would be declared on the basis of the existing ballot papers, instead of a repoll, making AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar the winner.