As no political party has attained a clear majority in the recently concluded Chandigarh MC elections, the senior leaders of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are fearing cross-voting among their municipal councilors after the Congress, which had won eight of the 35 MC seats, not only opted out of the race, but also announced that it will abstain from voting. Elections to pick the next Chandigarh mayor will be held on January 8.

Now, in the full House of 36, comprising one vote of the Chandigarh MP and 35 councillors, the BJP and the AAP have 14 votes each, the Congress is left with seven votes and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has one vote.

With the Congress deciding not to participate in the voting for Mayor, 29 is likely to be the total strength of the votes on polling day and the candidate securing 15 votes will win. In the absence of an anti-defection law, the councillors are not bound to follow any party diktat for voting.

The parties have traditionally failed to keep their flocks together and this time too, the prospects of cross voting remains high. Already allegations of horse-trading have been flying high among all parties. This has increased panic among the party’s senior leaders and candidates.

The Councilors of both AAP and BJP filed their nominations for the posts of Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor on Tuesday. AAP has fielded Anju Katyal and the BJP Sarabjit Kaur, both first-timers, as the post of Mayor is reserved for a woman this year.  In its debut MC election in Chandigarh, the AAP won 14 seats and the BJP strength was reduced to 12 seats from the 20 it had won in 2016. BJP had sent its councillors to Himachal Pradesh while AAP in Delhi and Congress in Rajasthan to prevent poaching ahead of the Mayoral election.