Amid a seat-sharing tussle at the national level, arch-nemesis turned alliance partners in the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, agreed on Monday (15th January) to field a joint candidate for the annual Mayor election in Chandigarh.
As part of the deal, AAP will fight for the Mayor’s post while Congress will be contesting for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar Tita will be the joint candidate of AAP-Congress for the Mayor post against BJP’s Manoj Sonkar. Congress’ Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi will fight for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor respectively. BJP has fielded Kuljeet Sandhu, and Rajinder Sharma for the posts of senior deputy mayor, and deputy mayor, respectively.
Notably, the Chandigarh mayoral elections are slated for Thursday (18th January). Every year, elections are conducted for the three posts during the five-year term of the House. In the current cycle, the mayor’s position is designated for the Scheduled Caste (SC) category. The BJP has held the Mayor’s post for eight consecutive years.
In the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, the BJP holds 14 council seats. Additionally, the party has an ex-officio member MP with voting rights. The AAP has 13 councillors, while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal is represented by one councillor in the House.
On previous occasions, the Congress abstained from voting in 2022 and 2023, leading to the BJP’s success in the mayoral elections.
Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu accuses AAP’s Punjab ministers of allowing illegal sand mining and corruption
Meanwhile, on Monday (15th January), the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued notice to the Government of Punjab and its officials on a plea filed by Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu and others. The plea sought directions from NGT to “direct the Punjab government to immediately halt illegal mining and initiate stringent action against violators, constitute a high-level committee to investigate past violations, assess environmental damage and fix compensation.”
Navjot Singh Sidhu said, “We cannot allow our hills and rivers to be sacrificed for illegal profiteering.”
Addressing media persons, Sidhu said that illegal sand mining was being carried out in Punjab under the patronage of the AAP Ministers. Sidhu said, “Apart from Ropar, the issue has come to fore from Moga and Pathankot too and people have testified as eyewitnesses with proof.”
Navjot Sidhu stated that the Punjab government has been imposed with a penalty of Rs 630 crore, which it has not paid so far. He pointed out that ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections in the state, AAP had “given a guarantee of generating Rs 20,000 crore revenue” from mining claiming that the money will be distributed among women who were promised Rs 1,000 per month allowance.
The Congress leader added, “This makes it Rs 40,000 crores in two years, but only Rs 300 crore made it to the beneficiaries. The remaining Rs 39,700 crore went into their pockets. This is a serious matter involving the economy. Illegal sand mining is going on under the nose of Punjab ministers. We can also say that with their facilitation, illegal mining is being carried out.”
Launching a scathing attack on his alliance partner’s government in Punjab, Sidhu’s petition reads, “Punjab’s rivers and environment is being ravaged under the watch of a corrupt and compromised government…This petition seeks to hold the government and authorities accountable for their inaction and compel them to enforce environmental safeguards.”
The petition further read, “It is shocking that illegal mining is being carried out on the ED attached government land of an NDPS accused Jagdish Bhola… AAP, which came to power with on record guarantee…of institutionalising mining…promised a fortune and delivered a dead mouse.”
He further wrote that “a sand trolley which was available for people at Rs 3,000 during Congress government in Punjab is today being sold at Rs 21,000 by AAP government.”
Navjot Sidhu argued that the “issue of sand mining is a double-edged sword which is not only damaging our environment but has also derailed the economy” of Punjab.
The constant fights between alliance partners AAP and Congress in Punjab
While AAP and Congress have tried to put together a joint front at the national level, there have been constant allegations and counter-allegations between the two I.N.D.I.A. bloc partners at state level.
Punjab Congress leadership has previously denied any possibility of contesting elections with the Kejriwal-led party. On 26th December, it was reported that the majority of Punjab Congress leaders stood against the idea of an alliance with AAP for the General Elections during a meeting of Punjab’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) chaired by All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge in New Delhi. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was also present at the meeting.
Earlier, On 17th December, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s chief and Delhi’s Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, expressed his desire to contest all thirteen Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and one Lok Sabha seat in Chandigarh in the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections.
State units of both parties has stated multiple times that they want to contest Lok Sabha elections alone in Punjab, leaving 0 seats for their supposed alliance partner.
