AAP names Councillor Prem Lata for Chandigarh mayor post

Chandigarh, Jan 25 (PTI) The AAP named its councillor Prem Lata as the party candidate for the post of Chandigarh mayor on Saturday, days before the January 30 mayoral polls.
    Lata will take on BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla.
    Polls for posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor will also be held next week.
    The AAP has joined hands with the Congress for the mayoral polls. While the AAP has fielded its candidate for the post of mayor, the Congress has put up its candidates--Jasbir Singh Bunty and Taruna Mehta -- for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.
    The BJP has fielded Bimla Dubey for the post of senior deputy mayor and Lakhbir Singh Billu for deputy mayor.
    All the six candidates of the three parties filed their nominations here on Saturday.
    The current mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, Kuldeep Kumar, is from the AAP. The AAP has 13 councillors in the House, Congress seven and BJP 15.
    Besides councillors, the MP from Chandigarh, Congress' Manish Tewari, has voting rights as an ex-officio member of the House.
    Senior BJP leader from Chandigarh Arun Sood termed the tie-up between the Congress and the AAP for the mayoral polls an "unholy alliance".
    "There are differences between these two parties in Delhi and Punjab but here they talk of a so-called alliance," Sood, who accompanied BJP candidates who had come to file their nominations, told reporters here.
    On February 20 last year, the Supreme Court declared AAP's Kuldeep Kumar as the new mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation after it overturned the result of the January 30 mayoral polls in which BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar emerged the winner.
    The order came after the AAP moved the top court, alleging that ballots were tampered with during the polling.
    On January 24 this year, the Supreme Court mulled appointing an observer to ensure that "free and fair" Chandigarh mayoral elections are held on January 30.
    A bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh passed the order on a plea filed by Kumar who sought "show of hands" instead of "secret ballot" to ensure fairness in the polling process.
    "Issue notice for the limited purpose of appointing an independent observer to conduct the election scheduled to be held on January 30, 2025. Meanwhile, the election process will continue," the bench said.
    The top court posted the hearing on January 27 and indicated that it may appoint a retired high court judge as observer for the polls.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)