Presiding Officers Fall Sick, Chandigarh Mayor Polls Deferred

In the first test of the INDIA grouping of opposition parties against the BJP, AAP and INC decided to contest the Chandigarh union territory mayoral polls together. AAP is contesting for the post of mayor and the INC for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The polls were slated for 18 Jan. However, on 16 Jan, when the INC councilor sought to withdraw his nomination, the presiding officer Anil Masih and the Municipal Commission Secretary Gurinder Sodhi both fell ill. Interestingly, both the officers claimed to be suffering from the same issue – backache. Chandigarh’s Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh has now announced the elections will take place on 6 Feb. A statement from the Commissioner's office read: ‘This decision follows a thorough assessment of the security and law and order situation by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandigarh.’ AAP and INC see BJP’s hand in deferring the polls, blaming otherwise peaceful Chandigarh’s law and order situation. AAP's Raghav Chadha said the INDIA bloc had 20 of the 36 votes in its favor and accused the BJP of being a sore loser. Questioning why elections have to be deferred if the BJP is losing, he said, ‘BJP is like a disgruntled child who, upon being called out in gully cricket, takes away the bat and declares an end to the game.’ Kuldeep Kumar, an elected AAP council and mayoral candidate for the INDIA alliance filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The Court has ordered rescheduling the polls between 23 Jan and 26 Jan. (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 3. Story 3).