Leaders divided over move to hold Mayoral election by show of hands

Differences have emerged among political leaders over the proposal to conduct the mayoral elections by a show of hands. The Administration has proposed to amend rules for conducting the mayoral poll by the show of hands in place of the existing secret ballot system.

Presently, no party is in a position to elect mayor on its own. A party will require 19 votes to get its member elected to the post of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor in the house with a strength of 35 elected councillors.

The BJP has 16 councillors, the Congress 6 and 13 councillors belong to the AAP. One vote is of the Member of Parliament.

While leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress are supporting the move, the BJP leaders are against it.

MP Manish Tewari said for long he had been raising the issue for making the voting process for the mayoral election transparent. What people of the city witnessed in the last elections is in front of everyone. The AAP-Congress alliance lost the mayoral election despite having numbers on its side due to cross-voting and flaws in the present system. The next election must be held with the show of hands so that the will and mandate of people prevail and cannot be hijacked or subverted for extraneous reasons, he added.

Will prove milestone: AAP

Yogesh Dhingra, councillor and AAP spokesperson, said if the Administration succeeded in conducting the next mayoral election with show of hands, it will prove to be a milestone for the coming generation. He said in the last election, democracy was murdered, which hurt the image of the city. “The video became a topic of discussion in the whole country and abroad that the BJP is a killer of democracy,” he added.

Dhingra said if the Governor approves the proposal it will be an important step towards clean politics in Chandigarh. He added that the election by the show of hand will also put a stop to the allegations levelled on the councillors, besides curbing the practice of horse trading, which will be in the interest of the people of Chandigarh.

Supporting the move, Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky said it will enhance transparency and check cross-voting as well as tampering during the poll.

However Arun Sud, former Mayor and former president of BJP, opposed the move. He said when the Punjab Municipal Act was implemented the secret ballot system was adopted by Chandigarh as voting rights were given to nominated councillors also. “Now, the voting rights case of nominated councillors is with the Supreme Court. So at this juncture, amending the rules is not justified as we do not in whose favour the judgment will come. The proposal can only be considered after the Supreme Court decides the matters,” Sud added.

Former mayor Subhash Chawla said the amendment in MC Act must not be made in piecemeal. The Administration must consider comprehensive changes in the Act after consulting all stakeholders, he added.

Kailash Jain, president of Udyog Beopar Parishad, and BJP vice-president has also opposed the move. He said it was an encroachment on the rights of the elected councillors.

The Municipal Corporation, had in its meeting in October 2024, passed a resolution in favour of conducting the mayoral election through the show of hands instead of secret ballot. The MC had passed the resolution after a controversy erupted last year during the election when the then presiding officer Anil Masih allegedly tampered with the votes. The matter finally reached the Supreme Court, which termed it a “murder of democracy”. Since the formation of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation in 1996, the mayoral election has been conducted through secret ballot.

Supporting the move, Baljinder Singh, president of FOSWAC, said in every election the issues of cross-voting had emerged, which had become a source of corruption. The election with the show of hands will bring more transparency in the election process, he added.

Social activist RK Garg, however, said merely holding the election with the show of hands will not serve any purpose unless anti-defection law was also not made applicable in the MC . In the absence of the anti-defection law any councillor can support anyone and the party is helpless in taking action against him for violating whip, he added.

Chandigarh