The BJP's Saurabh Joshi was elected as the new Mayor of Chandigarh Thursday morning after on-paper allies AAP and Congress failed to agree on a joint strategy. Joshi received 18 votes against 11 for the AAP's Yogesh Dhingra and seven for Gurpreet Singh Sabi from the Congress.
The BJP also secured the two Deputy Mayor posts, with Jasmanpreet Singh elected as the Senior Deputy Mayor and Suman Sharma as the Deputy Mayor. Singh and Sharma also got 18 votes apiece.
The Congress did not contest the election for the deputies' posts.
To win the mayoral election, a candidate needs 19 votes in the 35-councillor house.
The BJP has 18 councillors, all of whom voted for their candidate. The AAP has 11 and the Congress seven, which includes a vote from its Chandigarh MP – Manish Tewari.
That meant a Congress-AAP alliance – which would have tied the race at 18 votes apiece – was the only way the BJP could be stopped from winning this election outright.
If that had happened, per the rules, a coin toss could have settled the election.
But last week the AAP rejected reports of a tie-up with Congress, saying the party has "looted the country". The party's Anurag Dhanda said that there can "never" be any alliance with the Congress, days after Congress leaders said that they were holding discussions with the AAP.
"There is no alliance of the Aam Aadmi Party with the Congress anywhere, nor can there ever be any alliance. The Congress has looted this country in collusion with the BJP. The AAP is the real voice of the common man's struggle against these two parties that have looted the country," he posted in Hindi on X.
His reaction came after Chandigarh Congress President Harmohinder Singh Lucky said that "talks were on" with the AAP to "block the BJP".
Tensions between the two opposition parties had flared this month after AAP's Chandigarh in-charge, Jarnail Singh, accused the Congress of having an understanding with the BJP for power-sharing.
Lucky, however, hit back and questioned AAP's role in the 2024 municipal setup, where the mayor was from the AAP, but the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor went to the BJP.
The mayoral term for 2026 will be the fifth and final term of the current five-year municipal corporation, which has been in effect since 2022. For this term, the mayor's post is reserved for the general category.
