Changed political equations in the city could throw a surprise soon in the Municipal Corporation with Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) having a good chance to snatch the post of Mayor from the Congress after more than a decade.
With SAD-BJP having total of 12 elected councillors in the house of 36 members, the party has an edge over the Congress which has 10 elected councillors now after its two councillors Raj Bala Malik and Sat Parkash Aggrawal switched loyalties to the BJP this year.The number of BJP-SAD alliance was reduced to 12 after the demise of SAD councillor Malkiat Singh this year. Apart from this, there are two councillors of BSP and one independent councillor in the MCC house.
The house has a total of 36 members, comprising 26 elected, nine nominated and Member of Parliament, who is ex-officio member having voting rights during the Mayoral elections to be held on January 1, 2015 here.As far as the number game is concerned, the BJP’s victory will now rely on votes of nine nominated councillors, who play a key role in deciding the Mayor of Chandigarh.
At present, the ruling BJP is in talks with the nominated councillors and is confident to garner their support for the elections. This time, the Mayor seat is reserved for a woman candidate.It was more than a decade back when the BJP had its mayor in the city. The last time the BJP had its Mayor was from December 1999 to December 2000, when BJP’s Shanta Hit Abhilashi held the post and since then, the numbers were not in favor of the party.
The party had also given the city its first Mayor, Kamla Sharma in the year 1997.Sanjay Tandon, Chandigarh BJP president said, “The numbers are in favour of the BJP and the party will win all the three seats including mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor in the elections to be held on January 2015.
“The SAD-BJP combine has 12 councillors and an additional vote of Member of Parliament Kirron Kher. The party is in talks with the nominated councillors also and we are sure that the nominated councillors would vote in favor of BJP candidates. As the party has got huge support from people during lok Sabha elections, we are sure the nominated councillors would acknowledge this factor and would support us too,” he said.
On the other hand, BB Bahl, Chandigarh Congress chief said, “Though the Congress has 10 councillors in the MCC house, the party is sure of getting support of one SAD councillors and nine nominated councilors in elections.” Bahl said that the nominated councillors are in favour of Congress and we would win all the three seats in elections.
Though both the political parties are yet to finalise the names of their Mayoral candidates, name of Asha Jaswal from BJP and Gurbax Rawat from Congress is doing the rounds for the election to the top post.Earlier this year, the city BJP had managed to wrest two seats including of senior deputy Mayor and deputy Mayor from Congress in the Mayoral polls held on January 1, 2014 leaving just one seat of Mayor for the Congress, which had faced the defeat in the polls after 12 years.
During the elections, the nominated councillors had played a key role in BJP’s win. Congress candidate HC Kalyan was elected as Mayor, BJP’s candidate Heera Negi as senior deputy Mayor and BJP’s Davesh Moudgil was elected as deputy Mayor.