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Ahead of the Chandigarh Mayor election, two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors on Wednesday, Suman Devi and Poonam Devi, have joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
They joined the BJP in the presence of Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, Mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla and senior leader Sanjay Tandon. With the Mayor's election set to be held through open voting, the defection has altered the numbers in the House. The BJP now has 18 councillors and needs just one more vote to secure the Mayor's post, making its victory almost certain. The mayoral term for 2026 will be the fifth and final term of the current five-year municipal corporation, which has been in effect from 2022 to 2026. For the 2026 term, the mayor's post is reserved for the general category. The current mayor's tenure will end on January 29, 2026, meaning the election process must be completed before that date. Congress MP from Chandigarh Manish Tewari has called out the defection saying that there was a need for a directly elected Mayor in Chandigarh, following this political shift. https://x.com/ManishTewari/status/2003745701399023767?s=20 In a post on X, Tewari wrote, "This is precisely the reason why a Five year Mayor of@MCChandigarhdirectly elected by the people is necessary." Meanwhile, in another incident, Punjab Congress chief and Lok Sabha MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring claimed that the party stood vindicated on its assessment of the recently concluded Zila Parishad and Block Samiti elections, citing final figures that have now come into the public domain. Quoting the data, Warring claimed that the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won nearly 70 per cent of the seats by margins of 10 votes or fewer. "That is what we have been saying from day one," he said, alleging that in several such cases, election officials were pressured to declare AAP candidates winners even where opposition candidates were ahead by slim margins. Rejecting the ruling party's claims of a decisive mandate, the Punjab Congress chief asserted that the results reflected public disenchantment with the government. He alleged misuse of official machinery, intimidation of opponents and the psychological advantage enjoyed by the ruling party in local body polls. "If these factors are discounted, AAP has actually been defeated in these elections," Warring said, adding that the results marked the beginning of the ruling party's decline. (ANI)
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