Ludhiana: High drama unfolded at the Ludhiana municipal corporation’s Zone A office near Mata Rani Chowk on Friday as Congress and BJP councillors strongly protested the voting procedures for electing two members to the Finance and Contracts Committee (F&CC).The protest occurred ahead of the house meeting scheduled for Saturday at Guru Nanak Dev Bhawan. While the in-office Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors skipped the briefing session called to explain the election rules, opposition leaders arrived on time and alleged that civic officials arrived 50 minutes late without providing clear instructions.Controversy over serial numbers & voting secrecyOpposition members raised severe objections over serial numbers printed on the back of ballot papers, alleging the ruling party intended to track individual votes to prevent cross-voting.Congress candidate Gaurav Bhatti and BJP candidate Ruchi Gulati claimed AAP fears internal rebellion due to dissatisfaction over nominating MLAs’ sons for posts, which had earlier prompted an independent nomination by an AAP councillor. They noted that senior AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Aman Arora had to visit Ludhiana to force the candidate’s withdrawal.“Doing so would compromise the privacy of voting,” opposition members stated, demanding the removal of serial numbers and threatening to file a high court review petition if the ballot papers remained unchanged.Gaurav Bhatti further claimed that 102 ballot papers were printed despite the civic body having only 95 councillors, alleging the ruling party intends to illegally allow MLAs to vote.Additionally, Congress functionary Sham Sunder Malhotra cited MC commissioner Ojaswi Alankar’s previous ruling that mayor Inderjit Kaur would act as the presiding officer. Malhotra stated she could not vote if serving as the election officer.Following the uproar, the mayor summoned opposition councillors to the Zone D office for a meeting, where she reportedly agreed to remove the serial numbers from the ballot papers.
