CHANDIGARH:
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday retained the top post in the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) by a single vote.
BJP’s Anup Gupta got 15 votes, while AAP candidate Jasbir Singh managed 14 votes in the Mayoral polls.
It was a close fight after the Congress, which has six members, and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) with a lone member abstained from voting.
After both the BJP and the AAP got 14 votes apiece, Chandigarh’s BJP MP Kirron Kher, being an ex-officio member of the House, cast the decisive vote in favour of the saffron party.
BJP’s Harjeet Singh became the Deputy Mayor, defeating AAP’s Suman Sharma.
Meanwhile, the AAP claimed that one vote polled in BJP’s favour was invalid.
Last year too, the BJP had won the Mayor’s post by defeating the AAP by just one vote. At that time, one vote in favour of AAP candidate Anju Katyal was declared invalid, enabling BJP’s Sarabjit Kaur to occupy the top chair in the corporation. IANS