Congress Councillor Crosses Over To BJP Ahead Of Chandigarh Mayoral Poll

The Congress suffered a setback ahead of the Mayoral election in Chandigarh as the party's councillor ,Gurbaksh Rawat, joined the BJP. Mr Rawat - councillor for Ward number 27 -- is also the leader of the party in the house.

The Congress, which had seven councillors, is now left with six. The number of BJP councillors has increased to 16.

Mr Rawat joined the BJP in the presence of Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra and senior party leader Sanjay Tandon at party's office "Kamalam" in Chandigarh. 

Earlier today, the Supreme Court said that it would name an independent observer for the mayoral election, which is due on January 30.

Last week, the court considered appointing an observer to ensure "free and fair" election and indicated that a retired high court judge can be appointed.

The mayoral election in Chandigarh has been marked by bizarre and frequent twists.

Last year, the returning officer was caught on camera invalidating eight votes by tampering with the ballot papers that had initially led to a huge benefit to the BJP. He even made false statements before a Supreme Cour bench and later, had to tender an unconditional apology.

This time, Chandigarh Mayor, AAP's Kuldeep Kumar, had approached the Supreme Court requesting that the election be held by 'show of hands' instead of 'secret ballot' to ensure fairness.

Ahead of last year's election, two AAP councillors had quit and joined the BJP, but returned to the party fold within a month.