Split mandate in Punjab MC polls fuels poaching fears

CHANDIGARH: A fractured mandate in elections to three of five municipal corporations in Punjab - Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Phagwara - has had Congress worried about the prospect of horse-trading by governing party AAP, its INDIA bloc ally. Such is the desperation that there is talk of Congress even tying up with BJP in Ludhiana to keep AAP out.

"If an EVM machine can be broken, how much time will it take to break a member," Partap Singh Bajwa, leader of the opposition in the assembly, told TOI.

He alleged that AAP "will try to poach not only in the corporations where there is no clear majority but even in Amritsar, where Congress has a majority, and Phagwara (where Congress won 22 of 50 seats but fell short of the majority mark of 26)".

Alleging poaching by AAP in the past, the Congress legislator accused Arvind Kejriwal's party of luring former party members Raj Kumar Chabbewal, who was elected Hoshiarpur MP on an AAP ticket this year, and Sushil Kumar Rinku, the ex-Jalandhar MP who later joined BJP.

He also mentioned former SAD functionary Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon, who won the Gidderbaha bypoll on an AAP ticket.

"Their entire policy is of deceit," said Bajwa, adding that the civic poll verdict was "completely against AAP govt in Punjab".

BJP veteran Manoranjan Kalia said there was no anti-defection law in corporations. "In Jalandhar and Ludhiana, the numbers required to get a simple majority are small. So, horse-trading will play the role. The writing is on the wall."

With AAP failing to make it to the halfway mark, speculation is rife about BJP and Congress not being averse to joining hands to form the council in Ludhiana. BJP and Congress combined have 49 councillors.

Congress district chief Sanjay Talwar said, "Congress and BJP councillors are working to repeat the history of 1992." BJP has so far kept mum on the possibility.

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