In the recently conducted municipal corporation (MC) election, thirteen women defeated the 12 reserved seats. With the exception of two female municipal councillors, none of them had ever served on a council and have no political experience. Despite the fact that four of the newly elected women municipal councillors are the spouses of prior municipal councillors who are also active politicians, only Harpeet Kaur Babla is a politician, and they fought the election since women's seats are reserved.
Gurbax Rawat, who won the election for the third time on a Congress ticket, is the only woman with substantial experience in the councillorship, having served for ten years — and now for another five years. Babla was also elected to the city council.
Sarabjit Kaur, Vimla Dubey, and Darshna, three elected councillors, are the spouses of previous deputy mayors Jagtar Singh and Anil Kumar Dubey, as well as municipal councillors Gurcharan Das.
Seven of the newly elected women councillors are first-timers from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), while four were initially from the Congress before switching to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the women's reserved seats, the AAP is in the lead.
Significantly, 13 of the 35 wards, or more than one-third, have been won by women candidates, and all but one are new, so it will be vital to examine their total involvement in the MC and how it functions. Furthermore, because there are two mayor terms for women candidates in this five-year period, their role in leading the civic body becomes even more important.
According to a senior AAP representative, “Of the 35 elected councillors, majority of them are first timers. In this case, the responsibility of the senior leaders of the party will be huge. We have to work hard from the outside, at least in the initial years to guide councillors.” A senior BJP leader too said, “The main responsibility will be on officers to make the new councillors aware about rules. We are hopeful that with the passage of time, they will learn things.”
