Amid AAP-Congress seats talk on LS polls, INDIA bloc breakthrough in Chandigarh
Chandigarh Congress president H S Lucky said AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar Tita will contest the polls for the mayor's post.
Chandigarh: In a major breakthrough for the Opposition's INDIA bloc, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress on Monday agreed to contest the upcoming Chandigarh mayoral elections as allies. Senior Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal said his party will contest the polls for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts, whereas AAP will fight for the mayoral seat.
The Congress and AAP, bitter political rivals in Delhi and Punjab, had lately been sniping at each other because of the reluctance shown by the state units of the parties in forging an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. However, this month, leaders of the two parties appeared to be attempting reconciliation, with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal meeting Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday.
"This is the beginning of the end of the BJP's misrule in Chandigarh," Bansal said today.
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Chandigarh Congress president H S Lucky said AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar Tita will contest the polls for the mayor's post, whereas his party's Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi will fight for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor respectively, reported PTI.
Jasbir Bunty, the Congress party's mayoral candidate, will withdraw his nomination. AAP candidates Neha Musavat and Poonam will also withdraw their candidatures for the other two posts.
The Chandigarh mayoral elections are scheduled on January 18.
In the 35-strong Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, the BJP has 14 councillors. It also has an ex-officio member MP who has voting rights.
The Aam Aadmi Party has 13 councillors and the Congress seven. If these 20 councillors vote per their parties' political lines, the newly forged alliance can score a major victory. However, since the mayor is elected by the councillors through secret ballots, the possibility of cross-voting cannot be ruled out.
The INDIA bloc, an alliance of 28 Opposition parties against the BJP, is fraught with internal contradictions as many of its regional constituents are political rivals,
For instance, West Bengal. Since Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Choudhary said the ruling TMC had offered only two seats to his party for the Lok Sabha elections, the two sides have been attacking each other.
The Congress and the CPI(M) are bitter political rivals in Kerala as well, where the BJP is trying to get a toe-hold. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said it was nearly impossible to forge an alliance in the southern state but the BJP juggernaut can be stopped if the INDIA bloc manages to strike alliances in enough states.
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"I still expect that the BJP will emerge as the single-largest party. But I do believe their numbers can be brought down to a level where their potential allies required to form a government may no longer be willing to ally with them and may be willing to ally with us. So we have to give it a try," he said.
"In Kerala, it is almost impossible to imagine the two major opponents here of the INDIA alliance, namely the CPI(M) and the Congress, ever agreeing on seat-sharing, but right next door in Tamil Nadu, the CPI, CPI(M), Congress and DMK are all allied together and there is no debate, no dispute. They already fought the last election together. They are likely to fight this one too," he added.
With inputs from PTI
