Following ‘cross-voting’ by three council members, Harpreet Kaur Babla of the BJP was elected as Chandigarh’s next mayor. Babla received 19 votes, compared to 17 for Prem Lata, her closest AAP opponent. But Jasbir Singh Bunty, a Congress contender, was elected Senior Deputy Mayor.
Bimla Dubey, his closest opponent and a BJP candidate, received 17 votes, compared to 19 for him. This time, the seat was designated for women and had a one-year term. Gurbax Rawat, a senior female councillor for the Congress, has defected to the BJP ahead of the elections. Taruna Mehta, a congressional candidate, was elected deputy mayor. Lakhbir Singh Billu, a BJP candidate, lost against her. Billu received 17 votes, while Mehta received 19.
The BJP has 16 votes in the 35-member House, while the AAP-Congress combination has 19 council members—13 votes from the AAP and six from the Congress. In order to increase its total number of votes to 20, the year-old alliance also relied on the one vote of Manish Tewari, its MP and an ex-officio member.
To reach the 19-vote threshold for a majority, the BJP was depending on defections or cross-voting. A secret ballot was used for voting, which started at 11 a.m.
