No-confidence vote in Kharar MC on May 16

Kharar Municipal Council president Jaspreet Kaur Longia has called a meeting on May 16 with a no-confidence motion called by 18 councillors across party lines agenda.

Notably, 18 councillors are needed to pass the motion in the 27-member House.

A photo showing councillors, 18 in number, was shared on social media in a show of strength recently.

On May 3, Longia, the MC president and a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) councillor from ward number 19, alleged that from the day a no-confidence motion was moved against her, the police had been tailing councillors supporting her.

In another development, senior SAD and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders including NK Sharma, Ranjit Singh Gill, Parvinder Singh Sohana and Vineet Joshi, today held a press conference, flaying the police high-handedness and coercion of councillors ahead of the no-confidence motion.

“Five Municipal councillors and their family members have been threatened of FIRs by SHOs and DSP rank officers. The CID officials are barging into the houses of councillors. Suspicious vehicles are parked outside their houses and councillors’ movement is being tracked by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and party functionaries,” claimed NK Sharma.

Ranjit Singh Gill alleged he had received indirect threats of being implicated in a false case, adding, “These threats will not work. If you have majority, why worry, prove it in the House constitutionally and remove the president. But threats and coercion will not work,” he said, showing photos and videos of suspicious persons and vehicles outside councillors’ houses.”

Mohali SAD in-charge Parvinder Singh Sohana said five councillors, three from the SAD and one from BJP and Congress each were being threatened on a daily basis. Congress councillor Kamal Sharma, meanwhile, filed a police complaint in this regard at the Mohali SSP office today.

BJP leader Vineet Joshi said, “The AAP government is trying to usurp local bodies across the state but failing miserably. This government will not last its full term.”

Chandigarh