Harpreet Kaur Babla of BJP elected Chandigarh Mayor, defeating INDIA bloc's Prem Lata
PTC News Desk: The Bhartiya Janta Party won Chandigarh Mayor Elections on Thursday as Harpreet Kaur Babla has been elected Mayor of Chandigarh while defeating INDIA bloc's candidate Prem Lata by 19 votes. Meanwhile opposition alliance's Jabir Singh Bunty has secured Senior deputy mayor position, BJP's Taruna Mehta has been elected senior deputy mayor.
Three councillors from the opposition alliance cross-voted in favour of the BJP, swinging the outcome. The election was conducted under the supervision of former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Jaishree Thakur, who was appointed by the Supreme Court as an independent observer
BJP's candidate Harpreet Kaur Babla will be serving as new mayor. According to the presiding officer, all the 36 votes were polled with no invalid votes as Babla received 19 votes and INDIA bloc's candidate Prem Lata received 17.
Three councillors from the opposition alliance cross-voted in favour of the BJP, swinging the outcome. The election was conducted under the supervision of former Punjab and Haryana High Court judge Jaishree Thakur, who was appointed by the Supreme Court as an independent observer.
BJP's Harpreet Babla, the second time councillor, is the daughter of a retired Army Colonel and married to former councillor Devinder Singh Babla, who was previously with the Congress.
In the run-up to the polls, the Congress' senior woman councillor Gurbax Rawat had switched loyalties and joined the BJP. In order to prevent defections, the opposition alliance had put up its councillors in a hotel room in Punjab's ropar.
In the 35-member House, the AAP-Congress alliance had 19 councillors -- 13 votes of AAP and six of the Congress, while the BJP had 16 votes.
- PTC NEWS