Chandigarh: Local bodies’ elections
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Mayoral elections
2023
Deepak Yadav, January 17, 2023: The Times of India
CHANDIGARH: The Bharatiya Janata Party won the Chandigarh municipal corporation's mayor seat for eight time in a row.
BJP's candidate Anup Gupta defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s candidate Jasbir Singh by only one vote. The process of the election of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor is under way.
In 36 members’ general house of the MC, six Congress councillors and lone candidate of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) preferred not to involve in the polling exercise, while 14 councillors each of BJP and AAP and city MP, who is ex-official member of the MC house participated in the polling.
Total 29 votes were polled, out of which BJP got 15 votes, while AAP got 14 votes. None of the vote was either cancelled nor found invalid by the presiding officer. Based on the polled vote, the presiding officer declared BJP’s candidate Arun Gupta mayor candidate.
Before starting the majoral polling, Chandigarh deputy commissioner Vinay Partap Singh, who was monitoring the entire polling exercise, briefed about all the rules and regulation to the members of the House to remove all their doubts.
Municipal Corporation
2024 June
Hina Rohtaki, June 10, 2024: The Indian Express
The Chandigarh BJP, which is licking its wounds after its Lok Sabha candidate Sanjay Tandon lost to the INDIA bloc’s Manish Tewari, is now confronted with another problem. Tewari’s win means the BJP will also lose its hold over the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
Before the Lok Sabha elections, the 36-member House had 14 BJP, 13 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), seven Congress and one Shiromani Akali Dal councillor, apart from MP Kirron Kher. For the BJP, this meant, 16 votes were guaranteed – 14 from its councillors, one from its MP and one from then SAD councillor Hardeep Singh as the two parties were allies then.
But now, with Tewari’s entry into the House as the ex-officio member, a post enjoyed by Kher, the overall votes of the AAP and the Congress supersede the BJP.
With Hardeep Singh switching sides and joining the AAP, the party’s strength in the civic House stands at 14 now. With the Congress having seven councillors and Tewari as the MP, the AAP-Congress alliance can now count on 22 votes out of 36, which means it will now have the first say in passing crucial agendas.
The AAP-Congress alliance, which often struggled to get its way at a budget meeting or while passing agendas related to free water or parking, can now count on support from the mayor, AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar, and Tewari. The senior deputy and deputy mayor belong to BJP but , they cannot include an agenda.
The BJP’s plans to explore the possibility of moving a no-confidence motion against Kumar on the presumption the alliance would “fall apart after the Lok Sabha elections” have also fallen flat. The BJP will also find the going tough in the mayoral elections in January.
YEAR WISE DEVELOPMENTS
2016: BJP 20/ 26 seats, SAD 1
The BJP-SAD alliance swept the Chandigarh municipal corporation elections, winning 21 out of 26 seats, and immediately termed it a victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation initiative. While BJP won 20 seats, ally SAD took one.
It was Congress that had turned the election into an indirect referendum on `notebandi', raising the issue more frequently than other local concerns. This made BJP take an aggressive stand with party president Amit Shah calling demonetisation “a crusade against corruption“.
Congress strategy backfired as it could win only four seats and that too in wards where BJP had not fielded candidates in favour of SAD. Interestingly , the one independent candidate who won is a BJP rebel.
BJP not only got full majority in the corporation but also received maximum votes from the city's poorer areas and villages whose residents are supposed to have been worst hit by demonetisation.There are 12 wards in the poorer sections, populated mostly with migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.BJP won 11 of these.
Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher added, “People have voted in favour of demonetisation and against corruption. It's also the first major electoral win for BJP after demonetisation.“
Even the biggest victory margin came from the poorer sections, with Anil Dubey of the BJP winning ward 24 against Nasrullah Khan of the Congress by more than 9,000 votes.
2021: AAP 14 seats, BJP 12, Congress 8
Deepak Yadav, Dec 27, 2021: The Times of India
CHANDIGARH: In a major development for the first time in Chandigarh municipal corporation, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 14 seats in the results declared.
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress managed to get 12 and 8 seats respectively.
Giving major jolt to the traditional political parties in Chandigarh municipal corporation, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the maiden MC election in Chandigarh emerged a single largest party.
The AAP got 14 seats, which is being seen a major boost for the party, which decided to contest its first civic body election in Chandigarh at the later stage.
The AAP started opening its account from very beginning since the counting starts in the morning, when AAP candidate from ward number 1 made the first entry in the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh election.
After that the AAP’s candidates’ names were started announcing by the election offices from all the sides.
AAP’s national leader and Delhi MLA Raghav Chadha has already reached to the city to brief the media.
The initial results have clearly showed that AAP has taken over the traditional votes of the Congress, as till now the maximum wards belonging from the colonies, villages have gone to the AAP, which were earlier posing their faith on the Congress party. The AAP also managed to take some seats in urban area of the city too. Since the state election commission is getting the details from all the assistant election returning officers (AEROs), it will officials announce the results soon.
Though, the supporters of the candidates have come out on the roads of the city to celebrate the victory of the candidates.
