BJP wins both deputy mayor posts in Chandigarh days after embarrassing defeat in mayoral polls

The saffron party also won the post of deputy mayor by a margin of two votes. While the BJP’s Rajinder Sharma got 19 votes, the alliance candidate Nirmala Devi got 17. A total of 36 votes were polled.

The polling began at 10.26 am with Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher casting her vote. Voting for the post of deputy mayor will take place soon.

On January 30, BJP’s mayoral candidate Manoj Sonkar – who was the initial presiding officer for this poll after he was declared the mayor – had announced Sandhu and Sharma as senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively. However, this decision was quashed following the Supreme Court order declaring Kuldeep Kumar as the validly elected Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Kumar presided over the repolling and nominations were filed afresh in which parties fielded the same candidates.

The numbers

Interestingly, by the time the Supreme Court announced Kuldeep Kumar as the mayor, the BJP had managed to get three AAP councillors to switch to its side, taking the party’s total strength in the 36-member house to 17.

It also had the vote of Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, who is an ex-officio member of the house, besides the support of an Akali Dal councillor. This took its total votes to 19, which was more than the 17 votes of the AAP (10) and Congress (7).

The AAP and Congress had together announced an alliance to defeat the BJP in the mayoral polls. As per their pre-poll understanding, the mayor’s post was to go to the AAP, while the Congress would field its candidates for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

Crucial win for BJP

For the BJP, Monday’s win is crucial after the backlash it faced following the apex court verdict on February 20.

The presiding officer for the previous election, Anil Masih – a nominated councillor – had defaced eight votes of the INDIA bloc and declared them invalid. Masih then declared the BJP’s Manoj Sonkar as the mayor. However, the Supreme Court found the allegedly ‘invalid’ votes, polled in favour of Kuldeep Kumar, to be valid and declared him the Chandigarh mayor.