Hours before the Supreme Court hearing on Monday, February 19, Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar on Sunday resigned from the post, paving the way for the fresh mayoral election. Three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and extended their support to the BJP candidate in the Municipal Corporation House. The rebel councillors are Gurcharanjit Singh Kala, Neha, and Poonum Devi.
Currently, the BJP has a total of 15 votes in the Municipal Corporation House — 14 councillors and ex officio member i.e. an MP, in a 35-member House. The AAP has 13 councillors, while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor in the House. With the shifting of loyalties, the BJP will have 18 votes, while the AAP will be reduced to 10 votes.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear a plea filed by the AAP, which had alleged that the BJP tampered with the postal ballots during the January 30 Chandigarh mayoral poll.
Last year, in January 2023, up to 29 votes were polled of which Anup Gupta of the BJP won the mayoral election defeating AAP's Jasbir Singh Laddi by only one vote. Gupta got 15, while Singh secured 14. The Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal abstained from the voting. In 2022 too, the BJP candidate won by just one vote after a vote was declared invalid for various reasons.