Mayor’s swearing in put off at last minute, senior dy mayor, dy mayor polls uncertain

Hours before Dhalor was to take oath as the Chandigarh mayor, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced that the event had been postponed indefinitely due to some “personal reasons”.

With newly appointed Chandigarh mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor failing to turn up for his oath-taking ceremony on Monday, the fate of the re-election for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, scheduled for Tuesday, also hangs in the balance.

As per the MC Act, the mayor acts as presiding authority and presides over the meeting for the election of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. (HT Photo)

Hours before Dhalor was to take oath as the Chandigarh mayor, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced that the event had been postponed indefinitely due to some “personal reasons”.

Later in the evening, Dhalor told HT that his sister was unwell, so he had to rush to Ludhiana. “As my sister is unwell, I could not assume charge today. I will not be able to come to the MC House on Tuesday either,” he said.

As per the MC Act, the mayor acts as presiding authority and presides over the meeting for the election of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. Hence, if Dhalor does not turn up at the time of the polls, which are scheduled at 10 am, the MC secretary will have to issue a notification on postponement of the polls.

“So far, Dhalor has not submitted any verbal or written communication on requesting to postpone the polls. No official notification on postponement has been released,” said MC secretary Shambhu Rathee.

Having clinched victory in the Chandigarh mayoral elections after a hard-fought legal battle that went up to the Supreme Court, AAP had planned to make the mayor’s swearing-in ceremony a grand event by inviting Delhi chief minister and party chief Arvind Kejriwal, his Punjab counterpart Bhagwant Mann and senior party leader Raghav Chadha on the occasion. Sources, however, said the three leaders had no plans to attend the event.

Congress councillors move HC

for quashing of poll notification

Meanwhile, two councillors of the Congress moved the Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) demanding that the deputy commissioner’s notification on the election for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor on February 27, be quashed.

In the petition, Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi, who were Congress candidates for the posts of senior deputy and deputy mayor respectively, challenged the notification stating that the deputy commissioner did not have the power to convene the meeting for this election and it was only the mayor, who could have summoned the meeting and conducted the elections.

Even if, he had to do it, he should have consulted the mayor, the plea stated, adding that the election is to be held as directed by Supreme Court, which, as per the plea, means, a fresh notification be issued, nominations be invited again and thereafter a date be fixed.

The lawyers, led by Rajiv Sharma, had made a request for urgent hearing on Monday afternoon, which was allowed by the high court bench of justice Sureshwar Thakur, and ordered listing of the case for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the duo withdrew the petition in which they had challenged the election of BJP’s Kuljeet Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma as deputy mayor and senior deputy mayor respectively, conducted on January 30 in which AAP and Congress party councilors did not participate.

BJP councillors continue to be at Morni

After three AAP councillors defected to the BJP two days before the Supreme Court verdict on February 20, the saffron party secured an edge in the numbers’ game in the 35-member MC House. A party needs 19 votes to win the election, which the BJP has in its kitty with 17 councillors, an ex-officio vote of BJP MP Kirron Kher and the support of the lone Shiromani Akali Dal councillor. The AAP, on the other hand, is down to 10 councillors, and even the pre-poll alliance with the Congress, which has seven votes, will not help the INDIA bloc reach the magic number of 19. At least two of the three turncoat councillors returning to the AAP is the combine’s only hope for winning the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor’s posts.

To prevent this, until Saturday, the 17 BJP councillors remained at the PWD Guest House in Panchkula’s Sector 1. To further ensure that they remain unreachable before the fresh elections, senior party leaders directed them to move to a resort in Morni Hills on Sunday. The councillors continue to be restoring at Morni till the filing of the report.

As per BJP sources, the three councillors Neha Musawat, Poonam and Gurcharanjit Singh (Kala), who joined the BJP on February 18 in Delhi, are in Gurugram and are not with their BJP councillors at Morni.

“We are trying to talk to the three councillors. We want them to do ‘ghar-vapsi’ and we will welcome them in the party fold again”, said the AAP leader.

The mayoral elections have been mired in controversy since the word go, with the elections, originally scheduled for January 18, being cancelled at the eleventh hour after the presiding officer Anil Masih called in sick. When the polls finally took place on January 30, it came under the cloud of vote-tampering. Later on February 20, the Supreme Court declared Dhalor the winner of the mayor’s seat after noting that Masih defacing the eight ballot papers to tilt the scales in BJP’s favour was “obvious”. Also, the apex court directed fresh elections for the two posts. Chandigarh deputy commissioner (DC) had then notified the election date for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor for February 27.