Chandigarh: After row-hit mayoral polls, AAP plans changes in norms

With memories of the controversial mayoral elections in January this year still fresh, city mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor, supported by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is pushing for legal amendments to conduct free and fair elections of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.
The mayor is planning to hold a special House meeting in mid-October to hold a detailed discussion on the financial crisis of Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) as well as necessary amendments in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulations, 1996, for free and fair polls.
In the recent House meeting on September 26, the councillors of all parties had approved a resolution to form a special committee comprising officers, councillors and legal experts to examine the matter of necessary amendments in the Act to remove the difficulties in the proceedings of the House and process of elections of mayor.
“I will soon form a committee, which will recommend changes for easing the election procedure and to ensure that elections are held in a free and fair manner. Though various recommendations can be made, the AAP is proposing a resolution to include two IAS officers (municipal commissioner and deputy commissioner) in the House, when presiding officer, who is a nominated councillor, will count the votes polled for the post of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor,” said Dhalor, adding that the meeting can be called for October 14 or 15 as acting municipal commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh is said to be relieved from the posting on October 16.
The move comes just three months before the next mayoral polls and while the civic body does not have a regular municipal commissioner.
In Chandigarh, the elections for the posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor are held every year in December end or first week of January.
The mayor also wants a discussion to strategise solutions for the fiscal turmoil.
MC is presently in the midst of a severe financial crisis, forcing it to put a halt on tenders for development projects since May.
A poll rife with twists and turns
Ever since the mayoral polls were notified on January 10, they ran into multiple controversies. First, the polls were rescheduled from January 18 to February 6 by UT. After the Punjab and Haryana high court intervened, the UT decided to conduct the elections on January 30. But what happened on January 30 hit the national headlines as the AAP-Congress combine accused presiding officer Anil Masih of vote tampering.
After counting of votes, Masih, a BJP leader, had declared Sonkar, the saffron party’s candidate, the winner, even as the Congress-AAP alliance had 20 votes in the House while the BJP had 16. Masih had allegedly declared eight votes polled to Dhalor as invalid, resulting in a huge controversy as he was caught on live cameras defacing the eight votes.
Masih now faces perjury proceedings in the Supreme Court. On February 20, the apex court declared AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor the winner of the mayor seat, after noting that Masih defacing the eight ballot papers in question was “obvious”. Also, the apex court directed fresh elections for the other two posts.