Chandigarh mayoral polls: BJP's Harpreet Kaur wins closely contested fight

Chandigarh, Jan 30 (IANS) In a closely contested fight, the INDIA bloc’s Congress-AAP alliance on Thursday failed to win the election to the Chandigarh mayor’s post, owing to cross-voting by three councillors, while the BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla was elected the new incumbent. 

Harpreet Kaur Babla got 19 votes, while her nearest rival AAP candidate Prem Lata got 17 votes.

There was a direct contest between the AAP’s Prem Lata and the BJP’s Harpreet Kaur Babla.

As the new mayor, Harpreet Kaur Babla is expected to focus on enhancing urban development and addressing key civic issues to improve the quality of life for residents.

BJP Chandigarh vice president Devinder Singh Babla, husband of the newly-elected mayor, credited the win to the party’s strategy and the performance of outgoing AAP Mayor Kuldeep Kumar.

"We were confident that this will indeed happen. Mayor Kuldeep Kumar made up for everything else that remained. He showed that he was looting the corporation... We will get that enquired,” Devinder Singh Babla said.

In the run-up to the polls, the Congress' senior woman councillor Gurbax Rawat switched loyalties and joined the BJP.

Responding to the INDIA bloc's defeat, BJP leader Sanjay Tandon told the media, “Where was their (INDIA bloc) majority? I don’t think they ever had one... They chose BJP for the betterment of Chandigarh.”

This time the seat, with a tenure of a year, was reserved for women.

In the 35-member House, the AAP-Congress alliance had 19 councillors -- 13 votes of AAP and six of the Congress, while the BJP had 16 votes.

The year-old alliance also banked on one vote of ex-officio member and its MP Manish Tewari, taking its total votes to 20.

The BJP was relying on cross-voting or defections to achieve the 19-vote mark for a majority, a senior Congress leader said.

Voting was through a secret ballot. Amid reports of bickering, the AAP a day earlier released a photo of all councillors being kept in a hotel in Punjab’s Ropar town to prevent “poaching”.

The photo comprised three councillors who are reportedly “upset” with the party.

Harpreet Kaur Babla, a second time councillor, is the daughter of a retired Army Colonel and is married to former councillor Devinder Singh Babla, who was previously with the Congress.

AAP candidate Prem Lata, 46, is the wife of a retired Indian Air Force officer. She is currently teaching English in a government school to Class XI and XII students.

After the Congress’ rebel councillor Gurbax Rawat joined the BJP on January 27, the AAP and the Congress moved their councillors out of the city.

This mayoral election is the fourth year of the five-year rotational system. Before this outgoing mayoral term, the BJP had retained the seat for nine times in a row.

To oversee the mayoral election, the Supreme Court earlier this week appointed Punjab and Haryana High Court’s former judge Justice Jaishree Thakur as an independent observer.

No mobile phones, cameras, weapons, electronic gadgets, pens and pencils were allowed during the election process.

--IANS

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