BJP’s Sweep of Chandigarh Municipal Polls in 2016 Shared as Recent

The mayoral polls have been misconstrued as Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections.

The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections haven’t taken place for the year 2021 yet.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Several social media users claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had won 20 out of 26 seats in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections amid the ongoing farmers’ protest.

However, the results are from 2016. Further, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections haven’t taken place for the year 2021 yet. The results announced on 8 January were for the Chandigarh mayoral polls, which elect the mayor of the municipal corporation.

CLAIM

Indian Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit shared the claim on Twitter, garnering over 3,100 likes at the time of writing this article.

You can view an archived version here.(Photo: Twitter/Screenshot)

You can view an archived version here.(Photo: Twitter/Screenshot)

You can view an archived version here.(Photo: Facebook/Screenshot)

You can view an archived version here.(Photo: Facebook/Screenshot)

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

The election results declared in January 2021 are of the mayoral polls of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, which elects the head of the corporation and not the ward representatives of the corporation.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate Ravi Kant Sharma was elected the mayor on 8 January, garnering 17 out of 24 votes of the Corporation’s members. Whereas, the Congress candidate, Devinder Singh Babla, got five votes and two were termed ‘invalid.’

Out of the 27 members of the Corporation, three members – BJP’s Kirron Kher, Heera Negi and SAD’s Hardeep Singh – did not cast their votes.

So, social media claims that BJP swept the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections amid the farmers’ protest are false, since no such elections have taken place in 2021 yet.

According to The Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 the mayor of the corporation is elected every year, while the Municipal Corporation elections are held every five years.

USERS SHARE 2016 ELECTION RESULTS AS RECENT

Further, the users have shared the results of elections to the Municipal Corporation, which took place in 2016, along with the claim.

We found the election results of the years 2011 and 2016 on Chandigarh government’s website. In the year 2016, the BJP had won 20 out of 26 seats, Congress won four, and Shiromani Akali Dal won one.

(Photo: chandigarh.gov.in/Screenshot)

Evidently, the results of the 2016 elections have been falsely revived as recent, amid the farmers’ protest.

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