New Delhi: Saurabh Joshi was on Thursday elected as the new mayor of Chandigarh. He won the elections, after allies Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party failed
to agree on a joint strategy. He received 18 votes, while the Opposition candidates, AAP’s Yogesh Dhingra got 11, while the Congress candidate Gurpreet Singh Sabi managed just 7 votes.
Who is Saurabh Joshi?
Joshi has been active in Chandigarh politics for a long time. He has also served as a councillor twice, before being elected as mayor of the city on Thursday. He is the brother of BJP’s state media head, Vineet Joshi.
Saurabh Joshi is considered to be a very vocal leader, who has worked for civic issues in Chandigarh. He is recognised as a hard working councillor within the local BJP unit. His victory is not only significant for the BJP but also indicates that the party continues to dominate the municipal politics of Chandigarh.
It is expected that Joshi would work towards improving the civic amenities in the city and also work for the city’s development.
Mayor elections in Chandigarh
In order to win the mayor election in Chandigarh, a candidate needs 19 votes in the 35-councillor house. The BJP has 18 councillors in the house, all of whom voted for Joshi, AAP has 11 councilors, while Congress has 7, including a vote of Chandigarh MP – Manish Tewari.
If the Congress and AAP would have come together, then they would have 18 votes, which would have tied the elections. If this could have happened, then the mayor’s choice would have been made with a coin toss. But nothing of that sort happened and BJP had a smooth sailing during the elections fopr mayor.
AAP and Congress failed to come to any agreement regarding the choice of mayor. AAP in fact went to the extent of blaming the Congress for “looting the country.” They said that there can “never” be any alliance between the AAP and Congress. This statement came despite the Congress leaders’ repeated claims that “talks were going on with AAP for a tie up.”
