MAGIC NUMBER : IT WAS EARLIER DECIDED TO CONDUCT A DRAW OF LOTS TO ELECT THE CANDIDATE
SAS Nagar: Six councilors of the ruling group of Mohali Municipal Council (MMC, Sidhu camp) are interested in contesting the post of the senior vice-president of MMC, the election date for which is yet to be announced by the SDM, Mohali. All these councilors will contest the seat in an inter-group voting, according to the sources, and the winner will be made candidate of the SVP from the ruling group. It is pertinent to note here that the Deputy Commissioner, Mohali, has already written a letter to the SDM for convening the election meeting for the post of senior vice-president and vice-president for the MMC. The six councilors are Gurmeet Singh Walia, Suresh Kumar Lucky, Amteshwar Kaur, Prabhjot Kaur, Rajinder Parsad Sharma and Amrik Singh Somal.
According to sources in the ruling group, the group had earlier decided to conduct a draw for the post of SVP if no consensus was formed on a single candidate. But when six councilors showed interest, it was decided that a voting within the group would be held after the announcement of the date of election. It was also decided that MLA, Kharar, Balbir Singh Sidhu and the MMC president Rajinder Singh Rana will not cast their votes in favour of any councilor in the group.
It is also pertinent to note that the members of the opposition have already handed over their powers to Cabinet Minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh, who is trying his best to rope in councilors from the ruling group to his side so that the group can achieve the magic number of 17 councilors to win the SVP election. There are in all 32 votes in the MMC - 31 votes of the councilors and one vote of the MLA, Kharar.
The opposition group currently has 13 votes out of 32 and it needs more than 50 per cent votes to win the election. Sources in the group revealed that three members of the ruling group have already met Capt Kanwaljit Singh but the settlement has not yet been achieved for bringing these three into the captain’s camp. Even if they join his camp, the opposition will need one more councilor from the ruling group for the final victory.
According to information, the Sidhu camp is worried about its councilors meeting the opposition councilors and the Cabinet Minister. A meeting was called in Chandigarh to ensure their support. The voting of the ruling group members for their candidate will be done after the announcement of the date of election but the votes will be sealed and opened only one hour prior to the election. The candidate from the SVP will be declared only before the meeting.
Source: Express News Service