AAP councillors Poonam Devi, Neha Musawat return to AAP after brief stint with BJP

Punjab [India], March 9 (ANI): Two AAP councillors from the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation have rejoined the party less than a month after their defection to the BJP. Poonam Devi and Neha Musawat, who had previously crossed over to the BJP along with a third councillor, Gurcharan Kala, cited their return to the AAP as a "ghar wapsi" (returning home).
"2 AAP councillors - Neha Musawat (Ward No. 19) & Poonam Kumari (Ward No. 16) have joined back the Aam Aadmi Party under the leadership of @RajbirGhumanAAP, OSD to Punjab CM and Dr S.S. Ahluwalia, Sah-Prabhari, AAP Chandigarh. Warm welcome to both the councillors on their 'ghar wapsi'," AAP Punjab posted on X.
The councillors had switched allegiance to the BJP on February 18, just a day before the Supreme Court rebuked the returning officer, Anil Masih, for tampering with ballots and interfering with the mayoral election process in Chandigarh.
Notably, the Bharatiya Janata Party won both the Senior Deputy Mayor and the Deputy Mayor seats in Chandigarh on Monday.
BJP's Kuljeet Singh Sandhu won the elections for Senior Deputy Mayor of Chandigarh, securing 19 votes.
He defeated INDIA bloc candidate Gurpreet Singh Gabi.
The BJP got 19 votes, while the INDIA bloc (Congress + AAP) got 16. One vote was declared invalid.
Rajendra Kumar Sharma won the Deputy Mayor post getting 19 votes while the opposition secured 17.
In the 35-member Chandigarh Municipality, the BJP-led bloc had 14 seats but their strength was boosted on February 19 when three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors joined the BJP. (ANI)