Nidhi.bhardwaj@timesofindia.comLudhiana: The unity among opposition parties’ councillors and differences among the ruling party paved a way for one opposition councillor Gaurav Bhatti to enter finance and contracts committee (F&CC) of the civic body. The much hyped election of two members of the committee took place amid tight security arrangements in Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan on Saturday. In this election, councillor Yuvraj Sidhu, son of MLA Kulwant Sidhu became an F&CC member while Aman Bagga , second candidate of the ruling party and son of MLA Madan Lal Bagga could not make it to the committee. Now the F&CC has two new members Yuvraj Sidhu and Gaurav Bhatti while mayor Inderjit Kaur, senior deputy mayor Sham Sunder Malhotra, deputy mayor Prince Johar and the MC commissioner are already the members of the committee.The week-long strategies could not help the ruling party in securing both seats of its party while opposition councillors of the Congress and the BJP stood strong. The sources revealed that till late night the ruling party leaders tried to convince own party councillors to remain on their side. The AAP had decided to divide its votes in equal proportion of 27 each among two candidates to make it to the committee. But this formula did not work and Yuvraj Sidhu received 37 votes and he was declared winner in the first preference. Meanwhile Aman Bagga (AAP), Gaurav Bhatti (Congress) and Ruchi Vishal Gulati (BJP) got 22, 19 and 15 votes, respectively, while seven votes were declared invalid. The first preference helped Yuvraj Sidhu to sail through easily while for the second preference of councillors went in the favour of Bhatti. The MC has 95 wards but one councillor had expired so 94 councillors, including mayor and six MLAs cast their votes.It was Gaurav Bhatti who had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court in July when two members Yuvraj Sidhu and Aman Bagga were declared as the members of the committee. He highlighted that members should be elected not nominated. The court had then ordered the MC to get voting done. Yuvraj and Aman had resigned from the committee, but the party fielded both again. This irritated the AAP councillors, especially from West constituency. The AAP councillors were offended with the ignorance of the councillors and sons of MLAs were being preferred. However, the pressure created by senior leaders of the AAP could not help councillor Aman Bagga.Voting through a secret ballot began at around 11.30 am at Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan and was completed by about 12.40 pm. However, the result took nearly three hours to be declared, with mayor Inderjit Kaur announcing the outcome after the counting and scrutiny process. Six MLA’s, including Hardip Singh Mundia, Madan Lal Bagga, Kulwant Singh Sidhu, Rajinderpal Kaur Chinna, Ashok Prashar Pappi and Daljit Singh Grewal, casted vote in the election for which the opposition councillors had raised objection as well. The poll was conducted through secret ballot and under videography, in line with the high court directions and the procedure adopted by the MC. The election process was conducted in the presence of the mayor and civic officials.After election process was declared complete, Yuvraj Sidhu said, “At first both candidates from the ruling party were winners, but alliance of the Congress and the BJP helped Bhatti become one member”. He said second candidate was also a winner for the party.Meanwhile Congress councillor Gaurav Bhatti said, “I am thankful to the high court because it is only with the court’s support we could win. The ruling party used everything police, administration and political pressure, but the councillors remained united.” He said they would now work for the betterment of the city.After the results BJP councillor Ruchi Vishal Gulati said, “it is the victory of unity among the opposition councillors, but these results have shown mirror to the ruling party as well. Their own councillors are not happy.” She said after results were declared, MLA Madan Lal Bagga remained in washroom for one hour as he could not bear the burden of defeat of his son, but in the coming days ruling party would see more such results.Mayor Inderjit Kaur attacked the Congress and the BJP by saying that both parties had played a friendly match and it as because of second preference of BJP councillors Bhatti won. When asked about the differences in ruling party she said they needed to check where it went wrong.Development works will begin now?Now when the election process is complete, it is expected that stay on the finance and contracts committee meetings will also end.. For two months no meeting was held and works were pending for the approval. The F&CC is an important panel that deals with all financial and contractual maters of the civic body.
