Next year, the Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation will be elected by councillors by raising their hands. Chandigarh Administrator Gulab Chand Kataria has given the green signal to this proposal. Till now this election was done by secret ballot, due to which there was a possibility of cross voting. This change will curb the politics of manipulation and the election process will be more transparent. The Chandigarh Administration will seek objections and suggestions on this proposal in June 2025. After this, necessary legal amendments will be made to implement it. The administrator was already in favor of this change, but the officials argued that it is not possible to implement it by amending the rules so soon.
The matter arose after BJP’s victory
In this year’s mayor election, BJP’s Harpreet Kaur was victorious due to cross voting. Even before this, there have been many controversies due to cross voting. To stop this, a proposal for the councillors to vote by raising their hands was passed in the Municipal Corporation House, which has now been approved by the administration.
Anti-defection law also passed, but not implemented
Punjab Municipal Act applies in Chandigarh. A few years ago, the Municipal Corporation House had passed a resolution to implement the anti-defection law and sent it to the Central Government, but due to lack of approval, it has not been implemented till now. In the last three years, four councilors have joined BJP and one councilor has joined Congress from another party. In January this year, the then Mayor Kuldeep Kumar of Aam Aadmi Party had filed a petition in the Supreme Court demanding a fair election process. However, the Supreme Court had given the administration the right to take a decision on this.
