BJP’s Sarabjit Kaur was on Saturday elected the Chandigarh mayor.
In the 36-member Municipal Corporation House, 28 votes were polled as the Congress and SAD abstained from voting.The BJP got 14 votes, AAP 13 and one vote was deemed invalid.
BJP’s Dalip Sharma beat AAP’s Prem lata by two votes to win the senior deputy mayor’s position. Sharma polled 15 votes against Lata’s 13.BJP’s Anup Gupta won through a draw of lots after votes were tied 14:14 between him and AAP’s Ram Chander Yadav.
AAP councillors created a ruckus after the counting alleging that the BJP had been favoured in the counting process.
AAP councillors tried to stop the new mayor from addressing the House. Then, BJP councillors surrounded her chair. Later, marshals were called and they removed both set of councillors. Meanwhile, AAP president Prem Garg entered the Well of the House and was taken out by the marshals.This comes despite the fact that AAP had emerged as the single largest party in the elections held last month.AAP won 14 seats against BJP’s 12, Congress’s 8 and SAD’s 1.
Crying foul, AAP councillors sat next to the newly-elected Mayor and did not allow Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap to move, stalling the election process of the post of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor. Kaur has to get the elections done for both the posts now.Congress had already opted out of the election by not fielding any candidate and all seven councillors abstained from the voting process. They were joined by the lone Akali Dal councillor, Hardeep Singh.
