The election process for the posts of mayor, senior deputy mayor, and deputy mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has been altered. Elections can now be conducted through a show of hands rather than a secret ballot. This decision comes after Punjab Governor and Administrator of the Union Territory of Chandigarh, Gulab Chand Kataria, approved an amendment to Regulation 6 of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (Procedure and Conduct of Business) Regulations, 1996, on Tuesday, June 24, 2025.
According to an official statement, the amendment means that the election of the mayor, senior deputy mayor, and deputy mayor will now be carried out by a show of hands, a departure from the previous secret ballot method.
The move has elicited mixed reactions from political leaders. While the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress leaders are in support of conducting the election via show of hands, BJP leaders are against it.
MP Manish Tewari has been a proponent of making the voting process for the mayoral election more transparent. Tewari stated that the events of the last elections were witnessed by everyone in the city. Despite having the numbers on their side, the AAP-Congress alliance lost the mayoral election due to cross-voting and flaws in the existing system. He believes that conducting the next election by a show of hands will ensure that the will and mandate of the people prevail and cannot be subverted for extraneous reasons.
AAP Councillor and spokesperson, Yogesh Dhingra, believes that if the Administration succeeds in conducting the next mayoral election with a show of hands, it will be a milestone for the coming generation. He added that in the last election, democracy was murdered, which hurt the image of the city and that the video became a topic of discussion in the whole country and abroad, saying that the BJP is a killer of democracy. Dhingra said that if the Governor approves the proposal, it will be an important step towards clean politics in Chandigarh and that the election by the show of hand will also put a stop to the allegations levelled on the councillors.
The decision to amend the election process comes after a series of events surrounding the Chandigarh mayoral elections. In January 2025, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the election for the post of Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (CMC), defeating the joint candidate of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The BJP's Harpreet Kaur Babla secured 19 votes in the 35-member House, defeating Prem Lata of the AAP, who secured 17 votes.
The election was held through a secret ballot, and all 36 polled votes were found valid. While election to CMC is held every five years, election to the post of Mayor is held annually. The Mayor's post, which has a tenure of one year, was reserved for women this time. Despite having a higher numerical strength in the House, the joint AAP-Congress candidate for the post of Mayor fell short of the majority, which was indicative of cross-voting by councillors.
The AAP has previously moved the courts seeking a "show of hands" vote for mayoral elections. Kuldeep Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had urged the Court to order that the elections be conducted by a 'show of hands' rather than a secret ballot.
