AAP, Congress Alliance in Chandigarh Mayor Polls: A Prelude to LS Seat Sharing?

Background

The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has 35 members, out of which 26 are elected, nine are nominated and one is an ex-officio member (the MP of Chandigarh). The current MP is Kirron Kher of the BJP, who won the seat in 2019 by defeating Pawan Kumar Bansal of the Congress. The BJP has been ruling the corporation since 2016, but its majority was reduced in the 2021 elections, when the AAP made its debut and won 14 seats, while the Congress won eight and the BJP 12. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has one seat.

Alliance

On January 15, 2024, the AAP and the Congress announced an alliance for the upcoming mayoral polls, scheduled for January 18. According to the agreement, the AAP will contest for the mayor’s seat, while the Congress will contest for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts. The alliance was hailed by both parties as a sign of unity and strength against the BJP, which they accused of being anti-democratic and anti-people. The alliance was also seen as a possible precursor to a seat-sharing arrangement for the Lok Sabha elections later this year.

Candidates

The AAP has fielded Kuldeep Kumar Tita, a Dalit leader and a former president of the Chandigarh Safai Karamchari Union, as its candidate for the mayor’s post. The Congress has nominated Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi as its candidates for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts respectively. The BJP has fielded Rajesh Kumar Gupta as its candidate for the mayor’s post, while Ravi Kant Sharma and Anil Dubey are its candidates for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts respectively. The SAD has not announced any candidate so far.

Issues

The main issues that are likely to dominate the mayoral polls are sanitation, water supply, parking, streetlights, roads, health and education. The AAP has promised to improve the civic amenities and infrastructure in the city, while the Congress has accused the BJP of mismanagement and corruption. The BJP has claimed that it has done a lot of development work in the city and has blamed the AAP and the Congress for creating hurdles.

Prospects

The mayoral polls are expected to be a close contest between the AAP-Congress alliance and the BJP. The alliance has a slight edge over the BJP in terms of numbers, as it has 20 councillors (13 from AAP and seven from Congress) against 15 from BJP (14 councillors and one MP). However, cross-voting and abstention cannot be ruled out, as seen in previous years. The alliance also faces the challenge of convincing its voters and workers about its ideological compatibility and political coherence. The BJP, on the other hand, is banking on its organisational strength and popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retain its hold over the corporation.

Implications

The outcome of the mayoral polls will have a bearing on the political scenario in Chandigarh ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Chandigarh is a single parliamentary constituency that covers both urban and rural areas. The AAP and the Congress are hoping that a victory in the mayoral polls will boost their morale and momentum for the general elections, while the BJP is hoping to prevent any dent in its image and vote share. The mayoral polls will also test the viability and durability of the AAP-Congress alliance at both local and national levels.