Minister Balbir Sidhu’s brother Amarjit Sidhu elected Mayor of Mohali

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Mohali, April 12

Amarjit Singh Sidhu, aka Jeeti Sidhu, brother of Punjab Cabinet Minister and local MLA Balbir Singh Sidhu, was elected the Mayor at the first General House meeting of the Mohali Municipal Corporation held at MC Bhawan here today.

Amarjit Sidhu (48) will hold the post for two and a half years. Punjab Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa was present at the meeting as an observer.

Amrik Singh Somal and Kuljit Singh Bedi were elected the Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor, respectively. Somal, a two-time councillor, had defeated former Mayor Kulwant Singh in the elections held on February 14.

Meanwhile, expressing resentment, Congress councillor and former Senior Deputy Mayor Rishav Jain and his wife Rajrani Jain boycotted the meeting alleging that they were ignored by their party. Councillors of the Azad Group and other Independents also boycotted the meeting.

Former Deputy Mayor Manjeet Singh Sethi said on the one hand, the Punjab Government had been making tall claims regarding giving 50 per cent representation in the civic body poll to women, while on the other, no woman councillor had been elected to the post of Senior Deputy Mayor or Deputy Mayor.

Cabinet Minister Sidhu said they had declared that Rishav Jain would be the Mayor after two and a half years, while Narpinder Singh Rangi would be the Senior Deputy Mayor. He said the Deputy Mayor would be decided later. He said the names had been decided by the party high command.

In the elections held for 50 wards, the Congress had won 37 seats, while the Azad Group won 10 and three seats went to Independents. For the first time in the history of the MC, not a single councillor from the SAD and the BJP is part of the House.

Covid norms go for toss

Even as the state government has been exhorting people to wear a mask and maintain social distance, councillors paid no heed to the guidelines. A majority of the councillors, including the newly elected Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, were seen without a mask and did not maintain the distance despite the fact that Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu was present at the MC House meeting.

A supporter of Amarjit Singh Sidhu had brought a tree-pruning machine and showered flower petals from atop on the leaders after they came out of MC Bhawan.