Claiming that they did not receive a proper personal invitation from the mayor, several BJP councillors skipped the 118th All India Mayors’ Conference on Monday, raising eyebrows as election to the General House of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation are only two months away. Senior deputy mayor Jasmanpreet Singh and deputy mayor Suman Sharma were among the prominent absentees. Former BJP mayor Harpreet Kaur Babla turned up, but she left early.
Among those present were former two-time Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher, Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra, and former city BJP chief Sanjay Tandon. There were officials of the MC welcoming the delegates. As this was a mayors’ conference, councillors should have welcomed them. We should have been there. The mayor neither calls us nor receives our calls. AAP councillors also stayed away, describing the conference as a waste of public money. In contrast, Chandigarh Congress president H.S. Lucky attended the event with his party councillors, projecting unity within the party.
Because elections were just round the corner, rubbishing allegations of a rift, Mayor Saurabh Joshi claimed that councillors were busy.
Requesting anonymity, a few BJP councillors said they were not personally involved in preparations for the conference. A BJP councillor, wishing not to be named, said, “The mayor did not invite us personally. “Everyone was invited,” he said.
“We had received an official communication from the MC earlier. The mayor’s PA called us today but we never received any direct communication from the Mayor,” they said.
