Three AAP Chandigarh councillors — Punam Devi, Neha Musawat, and Gurcharan Kala — joined the BJP in the presence of the party’s national general secretary Vinod Tawde. Tawde said that the Chandigarh councillors joined the BJP due to dissatisfaction with their treatment in the AAP.






Neha Musawat, one of the councillors who joined the saffron party, alleged AAP of making false promises .






Meanwhile, Punam Devi, who joined the BJP said that she joined BJP after getting inspired from the work done by PM Modi.





The third councillor who joined the BJP, Gurcharan Kala said that he got inspired by the work of Prime Minister Narendra Modi across the nation.

Chandigarh Mayor Elections

When fresh polls are held, the BJP is likely to reach the majority mark of 19 in the civic body with the support of 17 of its own councillors, one from the Akali Dal, and one vote from ex-officio member and Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher. On the other hand, the AAP, which had 13 members, now has 10 representatives, and Congress has 7 in the 35-member House.


The AAP and Congress had fielded a joint candidate under the opposition alliance INDIA bloc for the mayoral polls held on January 30.


The BJP candidate, Manoj Sonkar, was declared the winner in the highly contested election after 8 votes for the opposition alliance candidate, Kuldeep Singh, were declared invalid. Congress and AAP contested the election result and filed a petition with the Supreme Court. The opposition alliance also alleged that the returning officer had manipulated the ballots and even released CCTV footage allegedly showing him tampering with the ballots.


As the matter is set to come up for hearing before the top court on Monday, Sonkar submitted his resignation from the Mayor's post on Saturday. Notably, Sonkar cited “moral grounds” for his resignation a day before the matter was scheduled for a hearing by the top court.


Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had criticised the returning officer who conducted the mayoral polls, observing that it was obvious that he had defaced the ballot papers and that he should be prosecuted, adding that his actions amounted to "murder and mockery" of democracy.