Mohali mayor Amarjit Singh Sidhu. (Facebook)The June 23 Sangrur bypolls has temporarily put on hold the Mohali Congress’ plan of ousting the civic body mayor, Amarjit Singh Sidhu, who had switched over to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) last month, along with his brother Balbir Sidhu.
As per reports, some senior councillors were keen on bringing a no-confidence motion against Amarjit Sidhu, a move that may find support from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), whose leadership in Mohali is also said to be in touch with the Congress.
A senior Congress councillor, requesting anonymity, said that the leadership of party at the moment was busy in preparing for the Sangrur byelections, after which the politics in the civic body may witness significant political developments.
“Most of the Congress councillors are of the opinion that the mayor had not consulted them before joining the BJP. There is also resentment among the councillors that the people of Mohali had voted for the Congress and made Amarjit Singh Sidhu the mayor. They never voted for the BJP or its mayor. Our party will respect the mandate of the people of the city,” the councillor said.
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Former senior deputy mayor and Congress councillor, Rishab Jain, on his part said that they will follow the guidelines of the party’s high command, while adding that a majority of Congress councillors felt betrayed by the mayor and former Punjab health minister, Balbir Singh Sidhu, for having switched sides.
Another Congress councillor said that they have been instructed by the party’s high command to wait till the Sangrur byelections were over before making any moves.
Mohali Congress insiders told The Indian Express that mayor Amarjit Sidhu had tried his best to woo party councillors by holding several meetings and then projecting the meetings as a show of his strength. However, he had not been able to win them over.
Meanwhile, an AAP councillor from Mohali confirmed that the party was in touch with several Congress councillors and their joint aim was to remove Amarjit Sidhu as the mayor of the civic body.
“We are in touch with Congress councillors and we are trying to speak to like-minded leaders. We are keeping a close eye on developments. The mayor has betrayed the mandate of the people by joining another party and if necessary we will overthrow him,” the AAP councillor said.
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