The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidates on Monday won in the re-elections for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor of the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh (MCC), defeating the INDIA block candidates.

BJP candidates Kuljit Singh Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma won the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor by defeating Congress-AAP candidates Gurpreet Singh Gabi and Nirmala Devi, respectively, in the re-election of MCC. The results were announced by newly appointed Mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor, who was the presiding authority to convene the poll.

The Supreme Court on February 20 had overturned the January 30 results of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had emerged a winner, and declared the defeated AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the city's new mayor.

As the mayor is the presiding officer for the elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, polls were held again. Sandhu won the post of senior deputy mayor by securing 19 votes and Congress' Gurpreet Gabi 16 while one vote was declared invalid.

For Deputy Mayor's post, Rajinder Sharma emerged winner by securing 19 votes, while INDIA bloc candidate Nirmala Devi got 17 votes. In the 35-member municipal House, the BJP has 17 councillors. The number of BJP's strength increased from 14 to 17 after three AAP councillors switched over to it on February 19. The AAP has 10 members while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor.

The elections to the two posts were earlier scheduled to be held on February 27, but a day before the elections, Mayor Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor (from AAP) had stated that he could not be present in the House as presiding officer because he was out of station to see his ailing sister. Subsequently, the court stayed the polls and ordered that the elections be held on March 4.