Chandigarh, Feb 18 Hours before the Supreme Court hearing on Monday, Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar on Sunday resigned from the post, paving the way for the fresh mayoral election.
Three AAP councillors are likely to join BJP and extend their support to the BJP candidate in the Municipal Corporation House.
The rebel councillors are Gurcharanjit Singh Kala, Neha and Poonum.
Currently, the BJP has a total of 15 votes in the Municipal Corporation House -- 14 councillors and ex officio member i.e. an MP, in a 35-member House.
The AAP has 13 councillors, while the Congress got seven.
The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor in the House.
With the shifting of loyalties, the BJP will have 18 votes, while the AAP will be reduced to 10 votes.
Last year in January, 29 votes were polled of which Anup Gupta of the BJP won the mayor election defeating Aam Aadmi Party's Jasbir Singh Laddi by only one vote.
Gupta got 15, while Singh secured 14.
The Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal abstained from the voting. In 2022 too, the BJP candidate had won from just one vote after a vote was declared invalid due to various reasons.
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