Chandigarh mayoral elections: AAP and Congress renew their partnership on Supreme Court orders

The Supreme Court’s rulings today seemed to have given the Congress and AAP, partners in the India alliance, new life after they teamed up for the mayoral elections. With the recent statement by the AAP that it would contest the city LS seat alone, their partnership was on the brink of dissolving.

Senior party officials convened shortly after the highest court’s directives and decided to stick united in order to defeat the BJP. “Today, I met with leaders of the AAP. I told them about our worries. The president of the municipal Congress, HS Lucky, said, “They listened to it, and we have decided to continue with the alliance.”

Previously, the Congress was not in the mood to maintain the alliance, not even for the elections for local bodies, having been deeply disappointed by the AAP’s recent decision to fight the city Lok Sabha seat and stage demonstrations without including them.

Following a meeting, Congress council members expressed their opinion that the party shouldn’t keep up its partnership. The party’s municipal unit had expressed its worries to high headquarters. Nonetheless, Lucky said today that word had reached the central leadership that the partnership would remain intact.

Will carry out the agreement: Cong

Today, I met with the leaders of the AAP. I told them about our worries. After they gave it some thought, we have chosen to keep the partnership going. —HS Lucky, President of City Congress

“The people of Chandigarh will get justice from the Supreme Court and for the first time, the city will have a mayor from the Aam Aadmi Party-Congress alliance,” said SS Ahluwalia, the co-leader of the AAP in the city.

In response to the court’s findings, he said, “Our lawyers also informed the court that the BJP is allegedly threatening and stalking the councilors in Chandigarh.” Furthermore, BJP council members and nominees are also responsible for the destruction of democracy because of the manner in which they attempted to change the attention of the cameras placed above Masih.

Jatinderpal Malhotra, the local BJP president, said in a statement that the court is still deliberating over the case and that no ruling has yet been made. Not much can be said about this at this time. The court’s ruling must be embraced by all parties, including us. We’ll honor that choice as well.

On the eve of an apex court case hearing, the governing party forced Mayor Manoj Sonkar to retire, with the three AAP council members joining the saffron party in Delhi, in anticipation of new mayoral elections. The BJP now has a majority in the MC House as a result of their entrance into the party.

In the January 30 election, Manoj Sonkar of the BJP beat Kuldeep Dhalor Tita of the AAP, a candidate for the INDIA bloc, to become the next mayor. Kuldeep received 12 votes, while Sonkar received 16. In the wake of presiding officer Anil Masih’s accusations of vote-rigging, eight ballots were ruled void. In accordance with the agreement, the Congress submitted their nominations for the positions of Deputy Mayor and Senior Deputy Mayor. The opposition, however, abstained from the polls, so the BJP gained both posts.

What caused the earlier split

The AAP’s recent decision to run for the city Lok Sabha seat and stage demonstrations without the Congress’s support dismayed them, and the latter was in no condition to maintain the partnership through the elections for municipal bodies either.