AAP emerges as leading party as Chandigarh MC poll throws up hung house; BJP's sitting mayor loses

Sandeep Rana
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, December 27

The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections the results of which were declared here on Monday threw up a hung verdict even as the new entrant AAP made a major impact in the Chandigarh politics.

The AAP, which contested the MC poll for the first time, bagged 14 seats while the ruling BJP could manage 12 and the Congress remained third winning only eight seats.

SAD won a single seat. The majority mark is 18 seats.

Among the prominent losers were sitting mayor Ravi Kant Sharma, and former mayors Davesh Moudgil and Rajesh Kalia. All three BJP candidates were mayors in the current term of the party.

Former Congress mayor Kamlesh also tasted defeat.

Chandigarh Congress president Subhash Chawla’s son Sumit Chawla also lost. BJP president Arun Sood’s seat from where party’s Vijay Rana contested was also lost.

Though the AAP won the maximum seats, its election campaign committee chairman Chandermukhi Sharma lost his seat.

The richest candidate in the fray, BJP’s Anup Gupta, won from his seat. He along with his wife had declared Rs 45 crore assets during the nominations filed for the polls.

From the Congress, Devinder Singh Babla, leader of opposition in the MC House, showed his dominance. His wife Harpreet Kaur Babla contesting from a woman reserved seat won by the highest margin of 3,103 votes.

The AAP had promised freebies like free 20,000 litre water per month per house, free public parking lots, free door-to-door waste collection, free primary education and mohalla clinics. Clearing the waste dumping ground was also its promise.

It is believed that people were agitated with the ruling party over the issues of raised water, sewerage and parking lots rates. Covid cess and cow cess were also the issues often raised by the opposition. National issues like price rise also seemed to have affected the party.

Anti-incumbency seems to have gone in favour of the AAP instead of the Congress. Other than the BJP it is also a big blow to the opposition Congress which was eying a comeback in the MC. 

Wards and winners

*Ward 1: Jaswinder Kaur of AAP wins.

*Ward 2: Maheshinder Singh Sidhu of BJP wins.

*Ward 3: Dalip Sharma of BJP beats Ravi Kumar of Congress by 90 votes

*Ward 4: Suman Devi of AAP beats Savita Gupta of BJP by 12 votes.

*Ward 5: Congress’s Darshana wins.

*Ward 6: Sarbajit Kaur of BJP wins by 502 votes.

*Ward 7: Manoj Kumar of BJP beats Om Parkash of Congress by 784 votes.

*Ward 8: Harjeet Singh of BJP beats KS Thakur of Congress by 682 votes.

*Ward 9: Bimala Dubey wins.

*Ward 10: Harpreet Kaur Babla, wife of leader of opposition Devinder Singh Babla, wins by 3,103 votes. It is the highest winning margin so far.

*Ward 11: Richest candidates in fray, Anup Gupta of BJP, beats Omkar Singh Aulakh of AAP by 167 votes.

*Ward 12: Saurabh Joshi of BJP beats Deipa Dubey of Congress by 1,017 votes.

*Ward 13: Sachin Galav of Congress wins.

*Ward 14: Kuljeet Sandhu of BJP wins by 255 votes.

*Ward 15: AAP’s Ram Chander Yadav beats Congress’s Dheeraj Gupta by 178 votes.

*Ward 16: Poonam of AAP beats Usha of BJP by 993 votes.

*Ward 17: Mahesh Sidhu of BJP wins by 11 votes, beats HS Lucky of Congress.

*Ward 18: Taruna Mehta of AAP beats Sunita Dhawan of BJP by 1,516 votes.

*Ward 19: Neha of AAP beats Kamlesh of Congress by 804 votes.

* Ward 20: Gurcharanjit Singh of Congress beats BJP’s rebel and independent candidate Kirpanand Thakur by 269 votes.

*Ward 21: Former mayor Davesh Moudgil loses to AAP’s Jasbir Singh by 939 votes.

*Ward 22: Anju Katyal of AAP beats Heera Negi of BJP by 76 votes.

*Ward 23: Prem Lata of AAP beats Ravinder Kaur Gujral of Congress by 681 votes.

*Ward 24: Jasbir Singh of Congress defeats Sachin Kumar of BJP by 997 votes.

*Ward 25: Yogesh Dhingra of AAP wins.

*Ward 26: AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar wins by 1,440 votes.

*Ward 27: Gurbax Rawat of Congress beats Ravinder Singh Rawat of BJP by 2,862 votes.

*Ward 28: Nirmala Devi of Congress beats Jaswinder Kaur of BJP by 2,568 votes.

*Ward 29: AAP’s Manaur Khan wins by 2,738 votes.

*Ward 30: Akali Dal’s Hardeep Singh wins by 2,145 votes.

*Ward 31: Lakhbir Singh of AAP beats Bharat Kumar of BJP by 1,062 votes.

*Ward 32: Jasmanpreet Singh of BJP beats Sanjeev Kochhar of AAP by 940 votes.

*Ward 33: BJP’s Kanwarjit Rana wins.

*Ward 34: Gurpeet Singh of the Congress wins by nine votes.

*Ward 35: Rajinder Sharma of BJP beats Jagjiwan Jeet Singh of AAP by 474 votes.