Setback for AAP: Congress wins finance panel seat in Ludhiana after court mandates polls

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Yuvraj Singh Sidhu and Congress’s Gaurav Bhatti won the election to the two vacant seats in the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation’s Finance and Contractual Committee Saturday after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered that the members be elected rather than nominated.

Sidhu, son of Atam Nagar MLA Kulwant Singh Sidhu, secured the highest number of first-preference votes, while Bhatti emerged the second winner after the single-transferable-vote process. AAP’s other nominee, Aman Bagga Khurana, son of MLA Madan Lal Bagga, and BJP candidate Ruchi Gulati were defeated.

The Finance and Contractual Committee is the most powerful decision-making body of the Ludhiana MC, the richest civic body of Punjab, and clears major development works in the city. The election followed a legal challenge by Bhatti after Mayor and AAP leader Inderjit Kaur in June directly nominated Sidhu and Khurana to the committee.

Bhatti had argued that under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, the two members were required to be elected by councillors. The High Court subsequently ordered an election, following which both Sidhu and Khurana resigned from their nominated positions.

Ludhiana MC Commissioner Ojasvi Alankar said the election was conducted through secret ballot. “As per the by-laws, single transferable vote is the preferred method for election,” he told The Indian Express. The proceedings were videographed in compliance with the High Court’s directions.

The 95-member House has 49 AAP councillors, 24 from Congress, 18 from BJP, two from Akali Dal and one Independent. Six AAP MLAs — representing North, South, West, East, Atam Nagar and Sahnewal constituencies covering urban wards — also participated in the voting.

Councillors marked their preferences from one to four on the ballot papers. Sidhu polled 37 first-preference votes, followed by Khurana with 22, Bhatti with 19 and Gulati with 15. Gulati was eliminated in the second round, and her votes were transferred to Bhatti.

After the two rounds, Sidhu finished with 32 votes, Bhatti with 29.22 and Khurana with 27.4, the commissioner said. Bhatti, however, questioned the participation of the six AAP MLAs, saying they were not members of the 95-member MC House.

He also alleged that three of his votes were declared invalid. “The ruling AAP tried its best to sabotage the election. How and why did the six ruling party MLAs vote? They are not the members of the 95-member MC House. The Punjab Municipal Corporation Act clearly says that the councillors have to elect the two Finance and Contractual Committee members amongst themselves,” Bhatti said.

He said that his victory, despite the alleged invalidation of votes and the MLAs' participation, showed that the ruling party had suffered a setback. Calling the outcome a “win of democracy”, senior BJP leader Parveen Bansal said the High Court’s intervention had prevented the “arbitrary” appointment of the sons of two AAP MLAs to the committee.

“Democracy was saved today due to the High Court’s intervention. An Opposition candidate has won by defeating the ruling AAP nominee,” he said, adding that the outcome raised questions over the functioning of the AAP government.