BJP's Anup Gupta elected as new mayor of Chandigarh, defeats AAP rival by one vote
Chandigarh, Jan 17: BJP's Anup Gupta was on Tuesday elected as Chandigarh's new Mayor defeating Aam Aadmi Party's Jasbir Singh by one vote in the mayoral polls held here on Tuesday.
While Gupta secured 15 votes, the AAP candidate got 14 out of the total 29 votes polled, officials said.
A close fight was expected between the BJP and AAP after the Congress, which has six members and the Shiromani Akali Dal, which has a lone member, had decided to abstain.
Both the BJP and the AAP have 14 councillors each in the House while Chandigarh's Member of Parliament, who at present is BJP's Kirron Kher, also has a vote being an ex-officio member of the municipal corporation house.
Kher also cast her vote in the polls.
Later in the day, elections were also held for the post of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, both of which were also bagged by the BJP.
While Kanwarjeet Singh Rana was elected as senior deputy mayor, Harjeet Singh became the deputy mayor, with both defeating their nearest AAP rivals.
Like the contest for mayor's post, these two BJP candidates also won by similar margin over their AAP rivals.
Speaking to reporters after his victory, mayor Anup Gupta (38), who was first elected as councillor two years ago, said bringing improvement in door-to-door garbage collection, better infrastructure in Chandigarh's villages, completing works related to sewerage and roads will be among his priorities.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Rahul Gandhi calls Great Nicobar Island project a ‘major threat’ to environment, tribal heritage
Sri Vijaypuram (Port Blair)/ Nicobar: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi criticised the Centre’s development initiative in Great Nicobar Island on Wednesday, On his maiden visit to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Gandhi alleged that the project will lad to large-scale environmental degradation and displacement of local communities.
The Rae Bareli MP, in a post on X after visiting the island, said the project would lead to extensive deforestation and adversely impact indigenous populations.
“So I will say it plainly, and I will keep saying it: what is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime,” Gandhi added.
“The government calls what it is doing here a ‘Project’. What I have seen is not a project. It is millions of trees marked for the axe… It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away,” Gandhi said.
Describing the initiative as “destruction dressed in development’s language”, he termed it one of the “biggest scams” against the country’s natural and tribal heritage and called for it to be stopped.
Gandhi also claimed that nearly 160 square kilometres of rainforest could be affected, raising concerns over ecological damage.
