NEW DELHI, Mar 9: In a bizarre flip-flop, two Aam Aadmi Party councillors of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation who had joined the BJP last month, returned to the AAP fold on Saturday. Poonam Devi and Neha Musawat, who were among the three councillors who had joined the BJP last month and tilted the balance in favour of the saffron party, termed their re-entry into the AAP “ghar wapsi” (return home).
The councillors had joined the BJP on February 18, a day before the Supreme Court had pulled up the returning officer Anil Masih for defacing the ballots and “interfering with the process” in the Chandigarh mayoral election, which saw a BJP candidate pulling off a shock victory despite the numbers being stacked against him.
Two days later, the Supreme Court had in a landmark verdict declared the AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar the mayor and ordered legal action against Mr Masih. Re-elections were held for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor last week and the BJP won both the posts.
The votes of Ms Devi and Ms Musawat played a key role in the party achieving victory because its strength in the 35-member municipal corporation went up from 14 to 17 after the entry of the three AAP councillors. The Congress and the AAP, who were fighting the election together, also had 17.
The BJP’s Kuljeet Singh Sandhu was elected senior deputy mayor after bagging 19 votes as opposed to the 16 polled by the Congress’ Gurpreet Gabim, and one vote had been declared invalid. Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, who is a BJP member, has voting rights in the corporation and one of the councillors is from the Shiromani Akali Dal.
After joining the BJP, Ms Devi had praised the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said the AAP was “a party of liars.” “PM Modi helps the poor and Dalits and I have been inspired by him. The AAP had promised to make me the mayoral candidate. My husband, who is a social activist, has been jailed. The AAP is a party of liars,” she had said in Hindi.
After rejoining the party on Saturday, both Ms Devi and Ms Musawat said misunderstandings had happened and they were happy to be doing a “ghar wapsi”. The third AAP councillor, Gurcharan Kala, who had quit with the two women, however, is still with the BJP.
(Manas Dasgupta)