Chandigarh:- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to contest on all three posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor in the mayoral elections to be held on January 29. Sources said that this decision has been taken after a meeting of the party's top leadership. The party has not yet announced the names of the candidates for this post. Sources said that the candidates will file their nomination papers this afternoon. In AAP, councilors Yogesh Dhingra, Jasbir Singh Ladi, Damanpreet Singh, Hardeep Singh and Ram Chander Yadav are in the fray for the post of Mayor.
Meanwhile, a meeting of the BJP's core committee is underway to decide on the candidates. Maheshinder Singh Sidhu, Saurabh Joshi, Kanwarjit Singh Rana and Dilip Sharma are the party's contenders for this post. Congress councilors are also meeting to decide on any alliance with AAP. However, Congress councillors are opposing the alliance.
The mayoral election will be interesting this time because the number of opposition councillors and the ruling BJP has now become equal after two Aam Aadmi Party councillors Suman Sharma and Poonam joined the BJP recently. A party needs 19 votes to win the mayoral election. With the addition of two councillors, the number of BJP councillors in the house has increased to 18.
At present, the Congress has six councillors and the AAP has 11 councillors in the house. An MP also has one vote. Now, the ruling party BJP and the opposition parties both have 18 votes, which makes the election interesting in the event of an alliance between the AAP and the Congress. This time, the mayoral election will be held by show of hands. This election was earlier held through secret ballot and cross voting played a big role in close contests.