Chandigarh: All eyes are on the mayoral post in the municipal corporation of Chandigarh as it happens to be the key battle for the Opposition as parties of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive (INDI) Alliance- Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party are contesting together against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The election will begin at 11 am on Thursday, January 18. 

Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha on Tuesday said that the INDIA bloc will sweep the Chandigarh mayoral polls and the victory will be the curtain raiser for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Chadha had earlier met senior Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal. 

The mayor is elected by the councillors through secret ballots. The MC officials have said that no mobile phone, camera and any other electronic gadget will be allowed during the voting at the assembly hall of the MC office.

Key battle for INDI ahead of Lok Sabha 2024 

Meanwhile, under the Congress-AAP alliance, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will fight for the mayor's seat while the Congress will contest the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

For the mayoral seat, the BJP has fielded Manoj Sonkar while the AAP has nominated Kuldeep Kumar Tita. For the post of senior deputy mayor, the contest will be between BJP's Kuljeet Sandhu and Congress's Gurpreet Singh Gabi. For the post of deputy mayor, the BJP has fielded Rajinder Sharma while the Congress party's nominee is Nirmala Devi. 

Current composition of Chandigarh municipality 

In the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, the BJP has 14 councillors. It also has an ex-officio member MP (Kirron Kher) who has voting rights. While the AAP has 13 councillors and the Congress seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor in the House.

This time the Congress and AAP have joined hands to oust the BJP from the chair of mayor which it has been winning for the last eight years. The Congress abstained from voting in 2022 and 2023, leading to the BJP's victory in the mayoral polls. 

Security tightened across Municipal office 

Security has been tightened outside Chandigarh Municipal Corporation office ahead of the elections. "600 personnel of the Chandigarh Police have been deployed. Besides, the Rapid Action Force of the CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) has also been deployed. All preparations have been made to maintain law and order here," said Kanwardeep Kaur, Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandigarh.