The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation’s F&CC election was held through secret ballot using the Single Transferable Vote system. (Image: Facebook/ Yuvraj Singh Sidhu)AAP councillor Yuvraj Singh Sidhu and Congress’ Gaurav Bhatti on Saturday won the election to the two vacant seats in the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation’s Finance and Contractual Committee (F&CC), after the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered that the members be elected rather than nominated.Sidhu, son of Atam Nagar MLA Kulwant Singh Sidhu, secured the highest number of first-preference votes, while Bhatti emerged the second winner after the Single Transferable Vote (STV) process. AAP’s other nominee, Aman Bagga Khurana, son of MLA Madan Lal Bagga, and BJP candidate Ruchi Gulati were defeated.The F&CC is the most powerful decision-making body of the Ludhiana MC — the richest civic body of Punjab, and clears major development works in the city. The election followed a legal challenge by Bhatti after Mayor and AAP leader Inderjit Kaur had in June directly nominated Sidhu and Khurana to the committee. Bhatti had argued that under the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, the two members were required to be elected by councillors. The High Court subsequently ordered an election, following which both Sidhu and Khurana resigned from their nominated positions.Ludhiana MC Commissioner Ojasvi Alankar said the election was conducted through secret ballot using the STV system. “As per the MC by-laws, STV is the preferred method for election,” . he told The Indian Express. The proceedings were videographed in compliance with the High Court’s directions.The 95-member House has 49 AAP councillors, 24 from Congress, 18 from BJP, two from SAD and one Independent. Six AAP MLAs — representing North, South, West, East, Atam Nagar and Sahnewal constituencies covering urban wards — also participated in the voting.Councillors marked their preferences from one to four on the ballot papers. Sidhu polled 37 first-preference votes, followed by Khurana with 22, Bhatti with 19 and Gulati with 15. Gulati was eliminated in the second round and her votes were transferred to Bhatti.After the two rounds, Sidhu finished with 32 votes, Bhatti with 29.22 and Khurana with 27.4, the commissioner said.Story continues below this adBhatti, however, questioned the participation of the six AAP MLAs, saying they were not members of the 95-member MC House. He also alleged that three of his votes were declared invalid.“The ruling AAP tried its best to sabotage the election. How and why the six ruling party MLAs voted? They are not the members of the 95-member MC House. The Punjab MC Act clearly says that the councillors have to elect the two F&CC members ‘amongst themselves’,” Bhatti said.He said his victory, despite the alleged invalidation of votes and the participation of the MLAs, showed that the ruling party had suffered a setback.Calling the outcome a “win of democracy”, senior BJP leader Parveen Bansal said the High Court’s intervention had prevented the “arbitrary” appointment of the sons of two AAP MLAs to the committee. “The democracy was saved today due to High Court’s intervention. An Opposition candidate has won by defeating ruling AAP nominee,” he said, adding that the outcome raised questions over the functioning of the AAP government.