Chandigarh Municipal Corporation will hold elections for Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor amid high political drama. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded Saurabh Joshi for Mayor, Jasmanpreet Singh for Senior Deputy Mayor and Suman Sharma for Deputy Mayor; Congress counters with Gurpreet Singh Gabi, Sachin Galav and Nirmala Devi respectively; while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) nominates Yogesh Dhingra, Manuar Khan and Jaswinder Kaur- facing an independent challenge from Ramchander Yadav for Deputy Mayor. Victory for Mayor requires 19 votes in the 35-councillor house (BJP:18, AAP:11, Congress:6), plus one MP vote, leaving BJP and the potential Congress-AAP alliance deadlocked at 18 each; a separate contest favours BJP, but unity could force a toss under the Municipal Corporation Act, with voting via show of hands this time.
