Mohali mayor Amarjit holds meeting, claims support of 40 councillors
Amarjit Sidhu on Tuesday had called the meeting of councillors for "discussing development works", during which senior deputy mayor Amrik Singh Somal and deputy mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi were in attendance.
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Mohali mayor Amarjit Sidhu during a meeting with Congress councillors on Tuesday. (Express Photo)The suspense over the fate of Congress councillors from Mohali continued, with the civic body mayor, Amarjit Singh Sidhu, holding a meeting on Tuesday during which he claimed that at least 40 councillors supported him.
Mohali mayor Amarjit Sidhu, and his brother, former Punjab Health Minister, Balbir Singh Sidhu, had hopped over to the BJP last Saturday, triggering uncertainty within the ranks of the Congress in the Mohali civic body. The Mohali unit of Congress had later appealed to its councillors to stay united and not succumb to pressure.
On Tuesday, however, Mohali mayor Amarjit held a meeting with councillors during which he claimed 31 out of the 37 Congress councillors were in attendance.
Amarjit Sidhu on Tuesday had called the meeting of councillors for “discussing development works”, during which senior deputy mayor Amrik Singh Somal and deputy mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi were in attendance.
Later, while reacting to Punjab Congress Chief, Amrinder Singh Raja Warring’s statement that the Congress will remove the mayor, Amarjit on Tuesday said that people can say whatever they wanted, but the truth was no one can remove him from the post as long as he had the support of the councillors.
On him joining the BJP, Amarjit said that he had taken the decision out of his free will and he was not pressuring any councillor to leave one party and join another.
“I am looking forward for cooperation from all my fellow councillors,” he added.
The mayor then went on to claim that all the 31 Congress councillors present at Tuesday’s meeting had extended full support to him. Apart from this, Amarjit said, five other councillors — who could not attend the meeting due to their busy schedules — were also supporting him.
Prodded about Tuesday’s meeting, the mayor said that he has been holding such interactions every month with his fellow councillors to check the ongoing development works in Mohali and also to get information about work that needs to be done. Tuesday’s meeting, he claimed, was especially necessitated because the Opposition had been trying to confuse the people and the media.
Deputy mayor, Kuljit Singh Bedi, said that Congress had given the post of mayor to Kulwant Singh of the Azad Group (who is now an AAP MLA). He said that after a few months when Kulwant joined the Akali Dal, the Congress did not withdraw support, but instead helped him pass all resolutions in the House unanimously.
Kuljit said that the development of the city was above politics so he and his colleagues were standing in support of the mayor so that ‘opportunistic’ Aam Aadmi Party did not gain more influence in the House.
He said that the Congress High Command was not aware of the situation at ground and he would inform his high command about this.
In the 50-member Mohali House, Congress has 37 councillors while AAP has 10 and three are Independents. To bring a No-Confidence motion, the Congress will need support of at least 34 councillors.
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