Big blow to AAP-Congress: BJP wins Chandigarh Mayor election

The BJP on Thursday won the post of mayor while AAP-backed Congress candidates registered victory in the poll for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts in the high-stakes Chandigarh mayoral elections. The contest for the mayoral polls was between the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-Congress combine. AAP was fighting for the post of mayor while the Congress was contesting for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. In a jolt to the AAP-Congress combine, BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla was elected as the new mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation after she defeated AAP nominee Prem Lata, winning with 19 votes against the 17 votes of the AAP-Congress alliance.
The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation consists of 35 members, including elected councillors and the Chandigarh MP, who has voting rights as an ex-officio member. Before the election, the seat distribution was as follows: AAP with 13 councillors, Congress with 6, BJP had 16 and 1 vote for the Chandigarh MP (Congress). A few days before the election, Congress councillor Gurbax Rawat switched allegiance to the BJP, increasing the party's strength to 16.The BJP relied on cross-voting the clinch the Mayor post.  
Retired Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Jaishree Thakur was appointed as an independent observer by the Supreme Court to oversee the polls. The top court had also directed that the election proceedings be videographed.The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation was previously led by AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar, who was declared mayor by the Supreme Court on February 20 last year, overturning the previous January 30, 2024, mayoral election in which BJP’s Manoj Sonkar had won. The court's decision came after AAP challenged the results, alleging ballot tampering during polling.