In today’s MC House elections, the ruling BJP retained all three posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor, and Deputy Mayor by a single vote, avoiding last-minute surprises in the form of cross-voting or invalid votes.
AAP candidate Jasbir Singh Laddi was beaten by a single vote by BJP’s outgoing Deputy Mayor Anup Gupta (38) to become Mayor.
One vote separated the BJP from the AAP, which had 29 votes between them. In spite of both parties having the same number of councillors, 14 each, the saffron party won with the vote of local MP Kirron Kher, an ex officio member. In the three rounds of voting, the ruling party secured 15 votes while AAP polled 14 votes.
One SAD member and all six Congress councillors abstained.
A single vote separated BJP’s Kanwarjeet Singh Rana (32) from AAP’s Taruna Mehta for the position of Senior Deputy Mayor. AAP’s Suman Sharma was defeated by Harjeet Singh (39) to become Deputy Mayor. A rarity, all three winners are very young.
As the day progressed, AAP alleged that a BJP vote which was stamped outside of the designated area was invalid for the post of Deputy Mayor.
As a result of Vinay Pratap Singh’s declaration, both votes were valid, according to the BJP, which had raised a similar allegation about a vote that went in favour of the AAP.
Prem Garg, president of AAP’s unit in city, said: “Congress and SAD handed over the Mayor’s office on a silver platter by not voting.” They could have voted by writing NOTA if they didn’t want to vote. A coalition of the Congress and the ruling party was formed.”
According to Arun Sood, head of the BJP unit, “We are the largest party, so we won.”. AAP announced its alignment with the Congress. Is it possible for them to predict which party will vote for which candidate? For them, the grapes are sour.”
HS Lucky, president of Congress UT, has claimed that both parties have attempted to buy our councillors. As a result, we decided not to vote due to these corrupt practices.”
In the visitors’ gallery, senior leaders Sanjay Tandon (BJP) and Pardeep Chhabra (AAP) witnessed the polling. A comment was exchanged between MP Kher and MP Chhabra at one point.
