The Indian Express 06.08.2013
PMC: Cross-voting counts in elections to senior deputy mayor, deputy mayor
Elected members of political parties resorted to cross-voting during
elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the
Panchkula Municipal Corporation here on Monday. Cross-voting not only
reduced the winning margin of the Congress-supported Independent
candidate, S S Nanda, who got elected as senior deputy mayor, but also
helped suspended BJP member Sunil Talwar get elected as deputy mayor.
While the INLD candidate for the office of senior deputy mayor,
Satinder Singh, managed votes from the BJP and Congress, the
Congress-supported Independent candidates voted for the suspended BJP
candidate, Sunil Talwar.
The elections to these two top positions held under the
supervision of Panchkula Mayor Upinder Ahluwalia clearly showed
dissension within the Congress camp and also brought to the fore the
bitterness between the INLD and Congress.
“Earlier when we had voted for the Congress-supported Independent
candidate, Upinder Ahluwalia, to elect her as mayor, we were given an
assurance that the deputy mayor will be from our party. But this promise
has not been kept,” said INLD city president Manoj Agarwal.
Though the INLD did not have the numbers, the party put up a
candidate for the office of senior deputy mayor and managed to get the
Congress votes as well. The Congress-supported Independent candidate,
Sangat Singh Nanda, got 11 votes for the office of senior deputy mayor
while as INLD candidate, Satinder Singh, got eight votes from the 19
votes that were cast. One of the Congress-supported candidates, Mamta
Mittal, did not attend voting. The Congress earlier claimed strength of
14 corporators while the BJP and INLD had won three wards each. However,
one of the corporators from ward no 7, Vinod Kumar, who was reportedly
affiliated to the Congress, had joined the INLD recently.
Suspended BJP member Sunil Talwar managed to get 10 votes against
the nine votes that were secured by the Congress-supported Independent
candidate Surinder Singh. Besides Talwar, the BJP had only two elected
members Ravi Kant Swami and C B Goel, who were also suspended along with
Talwar for voting in favour of Congress candidate Upinder Ahluwalia for
the office of the mayor. Talwar’s name was proposed by Ravi Kant Swami
and was seconded by INLD corporator Vinod Kumar. INLD city president
Agarwal said that Vinod Kumar joined the INLD recently and his support
to the BJP candidate came after the mayor did not fulfil her promise to
elect a deputy mayor from the party.
District BJP chief, Panchkula, Vishal Seth, however, said his party
had no role in the elections to the office of senior deputy mayor and
deputy mayor, and since the members were suspended, the party did not
issue any whip related to elections.
Dissension within the Congress as well as shifting of loyalties
to a particular camp were also evident. After S S Nanda, supporter of
Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, lost the chance to the office of
mayor earlier to Ahluwalia, also a CM loyalist, he managed to bag the
support of the Congress members from the camp of Union Social Justice
Minister Kumari Selja. Nanda’s name was proposed by Selja loyalist
Krishan Kumar Lamba and was seconded by another Selja supporter Bhawna
Gupta. Lamba also seconded the candidature of Surinder Singh for the
office of deputy mayor and his name was proposed by Congress-supported
candidate Lily Bawa.
