Congress sweeps mayoral polls; Subhash Chawla is new mayor

The Congress on Tuesday swept mayoral elections with its candidate Subhash Chawla being elected as 19th mayor, Rana Kashmiri Devi as senior deputy mayor and Satish Kumar Kainth as deputy mayor.

All three top posts went to the Congress candidates for the second time after the municipal corporation elections held in December 2011. As emancipated by HT, nominated councillors voted for the Congress.

In the past 17 years, the Congress ruled the MC's top chair for 12 times, while the BJP and the SAD managed it for five times.
Subhash Chawla, 58, defeated BJP-SAD candidate Arun Sood, 41. Out of total 36 votes polled, Chawla got 24 votes, while Sood managed 12 votes. Chawla, who was elected mayor in 2003, bagged the top post exactly after 10 years.

Rana Kashmiri Devi, 66, defeated BJP candidate Rajesh Gupta, 48, by 10 votes. She got 23 votes, while Gupta managed only 13 votes.
Similarly, Satish Kumar Kainth, 41, defeated Malkiat Singh, BJP-SAD candidate for the post of deputy mayor, by six votes.

Kainth got 21 votes, while Singh managed 15 votes. Kainth retained the post for the second time and that too after defeating the same candidate.
Chawla has become the 12th Congress mayor to hold the chair ever since the MC came into being in 1996. Nominated councillor Babu Lal was the presiding officer for the elections.
Union minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who is the ex-officio member, was the first one to cast the vote.

According to the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act applicable in Chandigarh, the party that has a majority in the MC House chooses the mayor. The first term of the five-year house is reserved for a woman candidate from the general category. The second term is for any candidate from the general category; the third is reserved for a candidate from the Scheduled Caste, while the fourth term is again for a woman candidate from the general category. The fifth term is reserved for a candidate from the general category.

The Congress councillors were confident of the win right from the beginning. Soon after the declaration of results, the BJP councillors left the venue, while the Congress supporters raised victory slogans.

Scorecard
Mayor
Subhash Chawla (Congress) 24
Arun Sood (BJP-SAD) 12

Senior Deputy Mayor
Rana Kashmiri Devi (Congress) 23
Rajesh Gupta (BJP) 13

Deputy Mayor
Satish Kumar Kainth (Congress) 21
Malkiat Singh (BJP-SAD) 15

In the House of 36 councillors, the Congress has 13 votes, while BJP-SAD has 11 votes, BSP has two votes and one vote is that of the Independent. There are nine nominated councillors.

Mayors till date
1996 Kamla Sharma (BJP)
1997 Gian Chand Gupta (BJP)
1998 Kewal Krishan Addiwal (BJP)
1999 Shanta Hit Abhilashi (BJP)
2000 Raj Kumar Goyal (Congress)
22.07.01 Gurcharan Dass (Chandigarh Vikas Manch) (for one month)
18.08.01 Harjinder Kaur (SAD) (for four months)
2002 Lalit Joshi (Congress)
2003 Subhash Chawla (Congress)
2004 Kamlesh (Congress)
2005 Anu Chatrath (Congress)
2006 Surinder Singh (Congress)
2007 Harjinder Kaur (SAD)
2008 Pardeep Chhabra (Congress)
2009 Kamlesh (Congress)
2010 Anu Chatrath (Congress)
2011 Ravinder Pal Singh (Congress)
2012 Raj Bala Malik (Congress)
2013 Subhash Chawla (Congress)