After a three-year postponement, the city government is set to hold elections for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor on Sept. 25.
This was stated by the Haryana government in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in response to a petition filed by Congress member Akshaydeep Chaudhary seeking a direction to the Haryana government to “immediately schedule and conduct elections for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor of the Panchkula Municipal Corporation”.
A division bench of the high court comprising Justices Sudheer Singh and Karamjit Singh, while dismissing the petition on July 24, had clarified that “in case the elections are not held as scheduled or are postponed, the petitioners will be at liberty to seek redressal of their grievances.”
Incidentally, in April 2023, the Urban Local Government Department wrote to city officials to hold elections for both posts and sent documents to the mayor to set a date for the elections, but no action was taken on the ground.
Fearing rebellion, BJP does not announce candidate
The Panchkula Municipal Council comprises the Mayor, 10 BJP councillors, two Janayak Janata Party (JJP) councillors, seven Indian National Congress councillors and one independent. The Mayor belongs to the BJP.
The JJP was a coalition partner of the BJP but the alliance was dissolved ahead of the Assembly elections in March this year.
Elections for the Mayor and 20 Municipal Councillors were held in 2020. They assumed office in the first week of January, 2021. As per Section 36 of the Haryana Municipalities Act and Rules 71 and 72 of the Election Rules, elections for Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be held within 60 days of the Election Commission’s notification for polls for Municipal Councillors.
However, fearing a rebellion within the party, the BJP had not announced its candidates for both posts.
The JJP took the issue to the civic commissioner and Ambala district commissioner. They planned to protest against the mayor in February 2023, but the mayor quashed them. The BJP also submitted letters signed by 10 of its councillors to the civic body twice, but to no avail, after which the BJP lawmakers moved the High Court earlier this year.
