BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla elected new Mayor of Chandigarh after cross-voting

Chandigarh Mayor Election: The election saw a significant twist with cross-voting among the councillors, which ultimately worked in Babla's favour. The elections for the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor were held in the assembly hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Chandigarh Mayor Election: Bharatiya Janata Party's Harpreet Kaur Babla emerged victorious in the Chandigarh Mayor election, securing 19 votes to become the city's new mayor. The victory came after a notable instance of cross-voting, which helped Babla surpass the AAP-Congress I.N.D.I alliance, which managed to secure only 17 votes.

The elections for the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor were held in the assembly hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. The AAP and Congress contested the mayoral elections as an alliance. While AAP contested the Mayor's post, Congress has put up its candidates -- Jasbir Singh Bunty and Taruna Mehta -- for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, respectively. The AAP had fielded its councillor Prem Lata for the Mayor's post. 

The BJP had 16 councillors, while the Congress had 6, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had 13 councillors. In addition to the councillors, Manish Tiwari, the MP from Chandigarh, was also granted voting rights in this election as a nominated member of the Municipal Corporation. 

SC appointed observer for election

The Supreme Court had also appointed Justice (retired) Jayshree Thakur from the Punjab and Haryana High Court as an independent observer for the Chandigarh Mayor election. This was done in response to previous controversies surrounding the election. The top court had instructed that the election proceedings be conducted in the presence of the observer and that videography of the election process be done for further accountability.

AAP won mayoral seat in 2024

In the 2024 mayoral elections, AAP's Kuldeep Kumar was declared the mayor of the Chandigarh MC by the Supreme Court on February 20 last year, after overturning the result of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had been declared the winner. The then presiding officer, Anil Masih, was caught on camera invalidating eight ballot papers that were in favour of the AAP-Congress alliance.