The union territory of Chandigarh ‘was’ the only place where the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party ‘alliance’ was working successfully. In fact, the Congress victory from Chandigarh was possible only because of the alliance with the AAP.
But, not any more after the AAP Mayor candidate lost to the Bharatiya Janata Party due to “cross voting”. Both the parties are blaming each other for betrayal.
The AAP had fielded only the Mayor candidate while the Congress had fielded the candidates for the positions of the Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor. Interestingly, while the AAP lost the Mayor’s position, the Congress managed to win both the Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor posts.
This has made the AAP more furious, saying that while the AAP remained sincere to the alliance by voting for the Congress candidates, some of the Congress councillors allegedly under a conspiracy voted for the BJP’s Mayor candidate to get the AAP candidate defeated.
Ahead of the Mayor’s election, the AAP and the Congress councillors from Chandigarh had been huddled together in a five-star Ludhiana hotel, to save them from being poached by the BJP. However, three AAP councillors had not joined them in Ludhiana and they had stayed put in Chandigarh.
Also read: Chandigarh, Amritsar mayoral polls: Tale of two cities, two parties
The AAP apprehensions of the Congress betrayal have a wider angle and also a reason, which goes right up to Amritsar. Just three days before the Chandigarh Mayor’s election, the AAP imposed its Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Amritsar, which is seen as a misuse of power by the ruling party in Punjab.
Congress had 41 of the 85 elected councillors in the Amritsar Municipal Corporation. The party was short of just 5 councillors for the majority, as seven elected legislators are the ex-officio members of the corporation taking its effective strength to 92. The AAP had only 24 elected councillors. However, seven AAP legislators took its strength to 31.
Despite being substantially short of a majority, the AAP claimed the support of some independents, Akali and BJP councillors and got an “election” conducted and declared its candidates elected as Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.
The Congress was expecting the Akali and the BJP councillors to abstain, which would help it sail through the election. But the AAP did not let that happen. The Congress leaders have since been crying hoarse over the “brutal misuse” of official machinery by the AAP government. Amritsar MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla also paraded the party councillors along with those of the BJP and the Akali Dal to prove his point that the AAP did not have a majority to elect the Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor.
Since the Amritsar wounds were too fresh for the Congress to be forgotten, the party appeared to have scored revenge in Chandigarh, where the Mayor election was conducted just after three days. Although Chandigarh falls under the jurisdiction of the union territory and is separate from the Punjab Congress, the party still appears to have prevailed over its Chandigarh councillors to seek revenge.
In fact, the AAP was short of majority in Jalandhar and Ludhiana Municipal Corporations also. But, in these places it needed only a few councillors for the majority. It did poach other parties including the Congress. That however, was accepted by the Congress, but Amritsar was too blunt and brutal. The AAP is also trying to use all its resources, including state machinery, to secure a majority in Phagwara Municipal Corporation also, where it is far too short of majority.
The Congress and the AAP have always been on a fiercely confrontational course in Punjab and also Delhi. However, due to the presence of the national leaders in Delhi and their approach, till now, having been to treat the AAP as a lesser evil than the BJP, in the national capital the rivalry was not as much pronounced as it was in Punjab.
Now that the Congress national leadership appears to have gone along with the Delhi leadership in confronting the AAP as fiercely as the BJP, its impact is now being felt loud and clear. Chandigarh Mayor election appears to be part of the same game. Given the acrimony and confrontation between the Congress and the AAP leadership in Delhi, the continuance of the alliance in Chandigarh looked like an aberration.
After the Chandigarh Mayor elections, the “alliance” between the Congress and the AAP is as good as dead. Both the parties appeared to be prepared for the break up, given their acrimony in neighbouring Punjab and during the ongoing assembly elections in Delhi.
At the same time, it goes without saying that the Congress won the Chandigarh parliamentary seat only because of the alliance with the AAP. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for the party to snatch Chandigarh, a BJP stronghold, from the saffron party and that too with a slim margin of about 2,500 votes only.
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