The Bharatiya Janata Party won all three top posts in the mayoral elections held days after Chandigarh’s municipal polls.
However, BJP’s first-time councillor Sarabjit Kaur Dhillon, who took over as the new Chandigarh mayor is creating a lot of buzz.
Sarabjit defeated her rival Anju Katyal of the AAP by one vote. She received 14 votes, while Katyal managed 13 and one vote was declared invalid.
The results of the Chandigarh civic body polls, which were declared on December 27, 2021, with the Aam Aadmi Party winning 14 of the 35 wards in the first election of civic body. The BJP won 12 seats, Congress eight while the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) got one. However, BJP’s vote count increased to 14 after Congress’ Harpreet Kaur Babla and one more from joined BJP.
Both the BJP and the AAP had 14 votes each in the House but later one vote was declared invalid. Soon after this AAP councillors created ruckus in the House. AAP councillors tried to stop the new mayor from addressing the House. Later, marshals were called and they removed both set of councillors.
The AAP cried foul on the election of Kaur and alleged that the BJP “made the officers tow their line by declaring a vote invalid.”
“The BJP and the Congress came together (to defeat AAP). One councillor shifted to the BJP and then the MP was allowed to vote for which there is no provision. AAP with the highest number of councillors should have its mayor as per rules,” claimed Raghav Chadha, AAP’s Punjab unit co-incharge .
