AAP, Congress To Jointly Contest Chandigarh Mayor Polls On January 18

In a small but significant move, the Congress and the Aam Admi Party will contest the Chandigarh Mayoral elections together. Congress leader Pawan Kumar Bansal told news agency ANI that both parties were discussing the same, and it was decided that the AAP will contest the Mayor's post while the Congress would contest the remaining two.

"Lok Sabha elections are to come later; before that, the corporation elections have come. We have been discussing the same and it has been decided that AAP will contest for the post of mayor and Congress will contest for the post of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The result of this will be that our candidate from the INDIA bloc will be successful with a good majority," he said.

"On national issues, we know that there is agreement between Congress and AAP. Meetings have been held between different parties in which a consensus has been reached. At this time, everyone has gathered together to save the feelings of democracy," he added.

A total of 35 councillors will vote in the Chandigarh Mayor elections.

At present BJP has the votes of 14 councillors and one MP. Whereas the Aam Aadmi Party has 13 councillors and Congress has 7 councillors.

Shiromani Akali Dal has 1 councillor.

18 votes are required for the majority, of which BJP has the maximum of 15 votes. However, if Aam Aadmi Party and Congress come together then they will have a total of 20 votes.

The alliance comes even as the AAP and the Congress try to strike out an alliance for the 2024 Lok Sabha Polls, Earlier, a meeting of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with Aam Aadmi Party chief Arvind Kejriwal was held in Delhi.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Aam Aadmi Party MP Raghav Chadha were also present in the meeting at Mallikarjun Kharge's residence. The AAP and the Congress could share seats in Delhi, Punjab as well as Goa and Haryana.

Meanwhile, Delhi Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Sunday congratulated Congress party president Mallikarjun Kharge for being named as the "chairperson" of the opposition's INDIA bloc.

The Delhi Minister said that Mr Kharge is a big leader and all alliance partners respect him and listen to him. Making him the chairperson is a good sign, he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)