Chandigarh Mayoral Polls: BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla Scores Narrow Victory

BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla won Chandigarh mayoral polls with 19 votes after defeating AAP candidate Prem Lata with a narrow margin of just two votes.

Chandigarh:BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla was Thursday elected as the new mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation securing a slim two-vote win over AAP candidate Prem Lata.

In the result announced by presiding officer Ramneek Singh Bedi, Babla secured 19 votes while Lata got 17 votes. No vote was found to be invalid.

There was a direct contest between the BJP and the AAP-Congress combine for the mayoral polls. In the 35-member house of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, the AAP has 13 councillors, Congress has six councillors and the BJP has a 16 councillors.

Cross-voting In Favour Of BJP
Besides the councillors, the Chandigarh MP also has a voting right as an ex-officio member of the 35-member municipal corporation. The sitting MP being Manish Tewari of the Congress, indicated cross-voting took place in favour of the victory of the BJP candidate.

For the Chandigarh mayoral polls, the Supreme Court had appointed former Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice (retd) Jaishree Thakur as an independent observer. Following the result of the mayoral polls, polling would now take place for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

Bimla Dubey and Lakhbir Singh Billu are the BJP's candidates for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor respectively. The AAP and Congress are contesting the mayoral polls in alliance while the mayor's post was contested by the AAP.

The Congress has fielded Jasbir Singh Bunty and Taruna Mehta for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor respectively.