Congress-AAP join hands to contest Chandigarh mayor elections on January 18

Taking a significant move ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress and AAP have joined hands to contest the Chandigarh Mayoral elections together. The information has been shared by Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal while speaking to ANI.

Here’s what he said

Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal told ANI that both parties have decided that the AAP will contest the Mayor's post while the Congress would contest the remaining two.

"Lok Sabha elections are to come later; before that, the corporation elections have come. We have been discussing the same and it has been decided that AAP will contest for the post of mayor and Congress will contest for the post of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The result of this will be that our candidate from the INDIA bloc will be successful with a good majority," he said.

"On national issues, we know that there is agreement between Congress and AAP. Meetings have been held between different parties in which a consensus has been reached. At this time, everyone has gathered together to save the feelings of democracy," he added.

#WATCH | On Chandigarh mayor election, Congress leader Pawan Bansal says, "... We (AAP and Congress) have decided that AAP will field its candidates for the post of Mayor in the Chandigarh Mayor elections and Congress will field its candidates for Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy… pic.twitter.com/S5GQqfT1D9

— ANI (@ANI) January 15, 2024

Noteworthy here is that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha were also present in the meeting during the discussion at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge's residence and it is anticipated that AAP and the Congress could share seats in Delhi, Punjab as well as Goa and Haryana.

Current scenario

Currently, BJP has the votes of 14 councillors and one MP. Whereas the Aam Aadmi Party has 13 councillors and Congress has 7 councillors. Shiromani Akali Dal has 1 councillor. To come in majority, 18 votes are required, of which BJP has the maximum of 15 votes. However, if Aam Aadmi Party and Congress come together, they both will have a total of 20 votes.