Massive blow to AAP-Congress: BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla elected as new Chandigarh Mayor

In a major setback for the AAP-Congress alliance, BJP candidate Harpreet Kaur Babla has been elected as the new Mayor of Chandigarh. The victory shifts control of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation to the BJP, dealing a blow to the AAP, which previously held the post.

BJP Chandigarh vice president Devinder Singh Babla, husband of the newly-elected mayor, credited the win to the party’s strategy and the performance of outgoing AAP Mayor Kuldeep Kumar.

"We were confident that this will indeed happen. Mayor Kuldeep Kumar made up for everything else that remained, he showed that he was looting the Corporation... We will get that inquired... Their councillors saw how they were behaved with, and then they voted for us," Babla said.

The election saw an intense two-way contest between the BJP and AAP-Congress. While AAP named Prem Lata as its mayoral candidate, the Congress backed Jasbir Singh Bunty and Taruna Mehta for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts, respectively. BJP, on the other hand, fielded Bimla Dubey for senior deputy mayor and Lakhbir Singh Billu for deputy mayor.

The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation was previously led by AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar, who was declared mayor by the Supreme Court on February 20 last year, overturning the previous January 30, 2024, mayoral election in which BJP’s Manoj Sonkar had won. The court's decision came after AAP challenged the results, alleging ballot tampering during polling.

Ahead of the polls, the Congress' senior woman councillor Gurbax Rawat switched loyalties and joined the BJP. In the 35-member House, the AAP-Congress alliance has 19 councillors -- 13 votes of AAP and six of the Congress, while the BJP has 16 votes. Besides councillors, the MP from Chandigarh, Congress’ Manish Tewari, had voting rights as an ex-officio member of the House.

The BJP relied on cross-voting the clinch the Mayor post.