Chandigarh: After enthusiastic mayoral polls, AAP is planning changes in norms

With the memories of the controversial mayoral elections held in January this year still fresh, city mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor, supported by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is pushing for legal changes to hold free and fair elections for the mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

The mayor plans to convene a special meeting of the House in mid-October for a detailed discussion on the financial crisis of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC) as well as necessary amendments in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Rules, 1996, for free and fair polls.

At the recent meeting of the Chamber on September 26, councilors of all parties adopted a resolution to establish a special commission composed of officials, councilors and legal experts to examine the issue of necessary changes to the Act in order to eliminate difficulties in the work of the Chamber. and the course of the mayoral elections.

“I will soon establish a committee that will recommend changes to facilitate the electoral procedure and ensure free and fair elections. While various recommendations can be made, AAP proposes a resolution to include two IAS officers (municipal commissioner and deputy commissioner) in the House during which the chairman, who is a nominated councilor, will count the votes cast for the post of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor,” Dhalor said , adding that the meeting may be called on October 14 or 15 as acting municipal commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh is scheduled to be relieved of his post on October 16.

The move comes barely three months before the next mayoral election while the civic body does not have a permanent municipal commissioner.

In Chandigarh, elections for mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor are held every year in late December or first week of January.

The mayor also wants discussions to develop a strategy for solving the fiscal turmoil.

MC is currently in a serious financial crisis, which has forced it to suspend tenders for development projects since May.

A survey full of twists and turns

There has been much controversy since the mayoral polls were announced on January 10. Firstly, the polls were postponed by the UT from January 18 to February 6. After the intervention of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the UT decided to hold the elections on January 30. However, what happened on January 30 made headlines across the country when the AAP Congress Combine accused president Anil Masih of vote rigging.

After the votes were counted, BJP leader Masih declared Sonkar, the saffron party’s candidate, the winner even though the Congress-AAP alliance had 20 votes in the House while the BJP had 16. Masih allegedly declared eight votes in the Dhalora polls as invalid, which sparked a huge controversy when cameras they caught him defaming eight voices live.

Masih now faces perjury proceedings in the Supreme Court. On February 20, the apex court declared AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor as the winner of the mayoral seat after observing that Masih’s destruction of the eight ballot papers in question was “obvious”. The top court also ordered fresh elections for the remaining two posts.