BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla elected new mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation

Chandigarh: The BJP on Thursday won the post of mayor while AAP-backed Congress candidates registered victory in the poll for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts in the high-stakes Chandigarh mayoral elections that took place here.

The contest for the mayoral polls was between the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-Congress combine. AAP was fighting for the post of mayor while the Congress was contesting for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

In a jolt to the AAP-Congress combine, BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla was elected as the new mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation after she defeated AAP nominee Prem Lata.

Babla secured 19 votes while Lata got 17 votes. No vote was found to be invalid.

The result for the post of mayor was announced by presiding officer Ramneek Singh Bedi.

Congress candidate Jasbir Singh Bunty won the post of senior deputy mayor after defeating BJP's Bimla Dubey. Bunty polled 19 while Dubey got 17 votes.

Congress nominee Taruna Mehta was elected as deputy mayor after defeating BJP contestant Lakhbir Singh Billu. Mehta got 19 while Billu secured 17 votes.

The shock defeat of the AAP-Congress combine in the poll for the mayor's post came despite both parties having 20 votes in the 35-member house of the Chandigarh MC. A total of 19 votes are required to win the poll.

The victory of the BJP candidate in the elections for the post of mayor indicated that cross-voting took place during polling.

In the 35-member house of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, AAP has 13 councillors and its ally Congress has six councillors. The BJP has a strength of 16 councillors.

Besides, the Chandigarh MP also has a voting right as an ex-officio member of the 35-member municipal corporation. Manish Tewari is the sitting MP of the Congress.

After Babla's name was announced as the new mayor, the BJP councillors congratulated her for her victory.

After the election of the mayor, polling for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor took place.

The Supreme Court last year had overturned the result of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had emerged an unlikely winner, and declared defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new city mayor.

It had also ordered prosecution of the returning officer for the poll, Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour", after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election.

The apex court had made it clear that it was not quashing the entire electoral exercise and restricting itself to dealing with the wrong-doings in the counting process which led to invalidation of eight votes cast in Kumar's favour.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had said it was evident that Masih made deliberate attempt to deface eight ballot papers.

The BJP had won the mayoral poll defeating the comfortably placed AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the returning officer declared as invalid eight votes of the coalition partners, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots.

Manoj Sonkar of the BJP had defeated Kuldeep Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival's 12 to bag the mayor's post. Sonkar, however, resigned subsequently, while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP.

Reacting on Thursday to the outcome of the polling for the mayor post, Chandigarh BJP president Jitender Pal Malhotra said they were confident that their party would register victory.

Former Chandigarh BJP president Arun Sood lashed out at the AAP-Congress combine, calling it an "unholy alliance".

Union minister Ranvneet Singh Bittu said the BJP's victory in the election for the post of Chandigarh mayor underscored the "public rejection of AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and Congress' politics of convenience".

"Congratulations to Harpreet Kaur Babla on being elected as the new Mayor of Chandigarh! Despite the AAP-Congress alliance's combined efforts, the people have decisively chosen effective leadership over empty rhetoric.

"This victory underscores the public's rejection of Arvind Kejriwal's and Congress' politics of convenience. It's time for them to introspect on their misplaced strategies," said Bittu in a post on X.

Chandigarh Congress president Harmohinder Singh Lucky admitted that cross-voting took place and said he was upset with the defeat of AAP nominee Prem Lata.

"We wanted to win all three posts. Whosoever black sheep in any of the parties (Congress, AAP) will be identified and strict action will be taken," said Lucky.

To a question on cross-voting, he said, "Strictest action will be taken against the person who has done this, be he from our party or AAP, and we will throw him out of the party. We will take it to a logical conclusion."

Whosoever committed the mistake will not be spared, he further said.

Earlier, polling for the post of mayor through secret ballot began around 11.20 am in the assembly hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. Polling ended at 12.19 pm.

The Supreme Court had appointed former Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice (retd) Jaishree Thakur as an independent observer for the mayoral poll. Tight security arrangements were made around the building.