Chandigarh Mayoral Polls: BJP sends its councillors to Shimla fearing 'poaching'

As of now, no party has secured the maximum tentative votes for getting its candidate elected as the mayor, leaving all of the parties equally vulnerable to losing.

Chandigarh: As the Chandigarh mayoral elections are approaching, the BJP has sent all its councillors to Shimla fearing losing their vote if the opposition manages to 'lure' them.

The poaching of councillors is a usual phenomenon during the elections, and all the parties are therefore being cautious. Before BJP, Congress has already sent all its councillors to Jaipur.

As of now, no party has the tentative majority votes for the election of the voluntary mayor scheduled on January 8. After the nominations of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor, and Deputy Mayor in Chandigarh, all the councillors from BJP were sent to Shimla, where they are currently staying with their families in a circuit house. These councillors will reportedly return to Chandigarh immediately before the mayoral elections.

All the parties are concerned about the uncertainty around the vote predictions, as no party has the absolute majority as of now. The party must have 19 votes to secure a majority, and none have 19 at this point. While the Aam Aadmi Party has 14 seats, the Congress has 8 seats. The BJP has 12 seats, in addition to one more vote from the MP and another one from Harpreet Kaur Babla - the wife of Congress leader Devinder Babla - taking BJP's total number of votes to 14.

In such a situation, the parties are likely to attempt to get the councillors from other parties in their favour, mostly by buying them. To avoid any such deals, the parties have sent all their councillors where they may not be exposed to deals they might find luring.

Chandigarh Mayoral Elections - the process

The Municipal elections are followed by Mayoral elections, wherein a mayor is elected for 1 year. Speculations are that Congress will not contest the mayoral elections this year. The clash will therefore be between the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party. The candidate belonging to the party with the most votes will be elected as the mayor.

If at all Congress also participates in the mayoral election, then the voting will be held twice. For the first time, candidates from all three parties will take part in the election. This will be followed by counting votes, after which the third party will be excluded from the election and re-voting will be held between the remaining two parties. After this, the party candidate who gets more votes will be declared the mayor.