Cong''s Poonam elected city Mayor

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 6

Amid high drama, the Congress candidate Poonam Sharma (52) was elected Mayor of Chandigarh today. She won by a margin of two votes defeating Heera Negi of the BJP. However, the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor were bagged by the BJP’s Rajesh Gupta and the Congress’ Gurbax Rawat, respectively.

With today’s victory in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation mayoral elections, the Congress has won the post of Mayor for the eighth year in a row. The defeat in the mayoral elections is a major blow to BJP MP Kirron Kher, who had won the Lok Sabha elections with a record margin. The BJP has 14 votes of councillors (including the MP) against the nine councillors of the Congress in the MC House.

This defeat the BJP also reminds of the 2000 mayoral poll when it lost the elections despite having the 3/4th majority in MC House. Its mayoral candidate Ranjana Shahi lost to Raj Kumar Goyal of the Congress.

In the election to the Mayor’s post, Poonam Sharma of the Congress polled 17 votes while Heera Negi of the BJP secured 15 votes. One vote was declared invalid. Of 35 members of the House, including BJP MP Kirron Kher, 33 members cast their vote. Nominated councillors Sat Paul Bansal and Dr Amrit Tewari were absent. While Tewari has been admitted to the PGI, Sat Paul Bansal is in Canada for business engagement. For the post of Senior Deputy Mayor, BJP’s Rajesh Gupta secured 17 votes while Congress candidate Satish Kainth polled 15 votes. One vote was declared invalid.
Congress’s Gurbax Rawat defeated BJP’s Davesh Moudgil by a margin of one vote to win the post of Deputy Mayor. Gurbax Rawat polled 16 votes while BJP’s Davesh Moudgil got 15 votes.
Two votes were declared invalid.

15-minute wait for Dr Amrit Tewari

The election process for the mayor’s post was completed at 11.45 am but the election observer, on the request of the Congress and the nominated councilors, waited for Dr Amrit Tewari, who has been admitted to the PGI. Ultimately, the election observer called up Dr Tewari, who told him that she would not be able to come to cast her vote. Thereafter at 12 noon, Babu Lal started the counting of votes.