Cong, AAP come together for Chandigarh mayoral poll

In a big move ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress have decided to come together to contest the Chandigarh mayoral elections.

If the alliance between the two holds and works out, it will be the first time ever that the bitter rivals would be joining forces on the ground anywhere. The two have voted jointly on presidential polls and the Delhi Bill in Parliament but never on the ground.

Articulating the nitty-gritties of the alliance, Congress leader Pawan Bansal said the parties have decided that AAP will field its candidate for the post of mayor in the polls. The Congress, meanwhile, will field its candidates for the posts of senior deputy mayor and mayor.

The AAP will field Kuldip Singh as mayor while the Congress will field Gurpreet Gabi and Nirmala Devi for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

In the Chandigarh mayoral elections, 35 votes will be cast. BJP has the majority with 14 votes — 13 councillors and one MP Kirron Kher. With one of BJP’s councillors, Gurcharanjit Kala from Hallomajra, moving to the AAP, the latter’s numbers have increased from 13 to 14. Taking that into account, both BJP and AAP have 14 votes each.

The Congress has seven votes. In the last mayoral elections, the Congress had abstained from voting or allying with the AAP, which enabled the BJP to sweep elections. This time, Congress and AAP together have 21 votes, enabling each party to elect its candidate.

According to sources, AAP Punjab MPs Raghav Chadha and Sandeep Pathak played a key role in hammering out a consensus between the parties. Though the Congress was initially unwilling, with its candidate Jasbir Singh Bunty filing his nomination for the post of mayor last Friday, an understanding has been reached that he will withdraw his nomination. According to sources, Congress wanted the mayoral post to be rotational — six months each for both the parties. It later settled for the posts of senior deputy mayor as well as deputy mayor.

When asked whether Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s meeting with Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and MP Rahul Gandhi was regarding seat sharing, Bhardwaj, who is also part of the discussions, said: “I don’t think they would have discussed seat sharing in that meeting. That was a meeting between the alliance partners. On many occasions earlier, they have already met. That meeting was at Kharge-ji’s residence. I don’t think seat sharing would have been discussed over there. However, it is true that the two alliance partners are positive towards each other and all discussions are going on in a positive atmosphere.” Bhardwaj added that there is nothing so significant that has emerged out of the talks between the two that could be shared.

The Chandigarh mayoral elections will be the litmus test for the Congress-AAP alliance and if everything goes according to plan, it will be the first successful foray of two parties within the INDIA bloc. This, in turn, could set the tone for LS polls in Chandigarh, Punjab and elsewhere.