Rift in INDIA bloc? Congress councillors’ hurried exit before Chandigarh mayor’s tea party raises brows

In a dramatic turn of events, Congress councillors who had turned up to attend Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor’s tea party on Friday left abruptly following a call from the local leadership, signaling at a possible discord between the two INDIA bloc partners.

Though the leaders of the two parties claim that the alliance is intact, no formal meeting has taken place between them to discuss the alliance terms or candidature for the upcoming mayoral polls, raising resentment among the Congress leaders.

Even Congress president HS Lucky admitted that no formal meeting has taken place with the AAP so far. “It seems the AAP is either too busy handling its own party issues or is very confident about winning the polls,” he said.

On Friday, the outgoing mayor had invited councillors across party lines – elected as well as nominated – besides senior MC officials, including the municipal commissioner, joint commissioners, chief engineer and a few others, at the MC’s conference room at 2 pm to thank them for their support during his tenure.

Five of the seven Congress councillors -- Tarun Mehta, Darshana, Nirmala Devi, Jasbir Bunty and Sachin Galav, had reached the venue around 2:30 pm, but made a hurried exit after getting a call from the local leadership.

Surprisingly, most councillors of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were in attendance.

A senior Congress councillor revealed, “We were called back to the Congress Bhawan for a meeting. It seems the senior leadership is unhappy with the AAP. Talks for mayoral elections usually starts in December but they showed no interest in holding meetings, or selecting candidate with mutual understanding or the strategy.”

The councillor added that AAP had not invited them while going to meet the deputy commissioner on Thursday to seek polls in February.

Lucky meanwhile claimed that the councillors left the tea party due to a pre-scheduled meeting. “We had a pre-scheduled meeting of councillors at the Congress Bhawan at 3 pm. Since the gathering started late, our councillors had to leave it midway. We had to discuss a few important issues related to the city and the upcoming mayoral elections,” he said.

Notably, the development comes amid the Congress and AAP’s fighting against each other in the Delhi polls.

When contacted, mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor said, “I am glad that the councillors and officers attended the party and supported me. Congress councillors too had come but left early as they had some other appointments.”

Notably, some AAP councillors also skipped the party and a planned visit to Sukhna Lake later in the day. Speculations are rife that some AAP councillors are considering switching allegiances ahead of the mayoral polls.

Newly appointed AAP president Vijay Pal was unavailable for comments as his phone remained switched off.

For the AAP to win the key municipal positions and have numerical advantage, they need support of Congress in the 35-member Chandigarh municipal corporation (MC) House. Currently, the INDIA bloc has 21 votes in the House — 13 from AAP, seven from Congress and one ex-officio vote of MP Manish Tewari. In contrast, the BJP has only 15 votes and is relying on cross-voting or defection of INDIA bloc councillors to tip the balance in its favour. In the 2024 polls, Dhalor was appointed as Chandigarh mayor by the Supreme Court in the aftermath of the Anil Masih ballot-tampering fiasco. He became the first non-BJP and non-Congress mayor of Chandigarh.