SANGRUR: The SAD-BJP alliance suffered a major setback when the Congress succeeded in making its candidate president of the local municipal council (MC) at a meeting held for the election to the post of president of the council here Wednesday.

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The candidate Harbans Lal, who was Wednesday elected president of the council as nominee of the Congress, had won the recently held MC election from ward number 13 as a candidate of the SAD. Today, however, he joined the Congress and immediately after that he became president of the council. Six SAD municipal councillors, four BJP councillors and one independent councillor did not attend the election meeting.

The local MC has 21 municipal councillors. Seven candidates of the SAD, four of the BJP, nine of the Congress, and one independent candidate Harinder Singh Khalsa emerged victorious in the recently held elections to the local MC. Besides these 21 councillors, local Congress MLA Surinder Pal Singh Sibia is the 22nd member (in the capacity of MLA) of the council.

Sibia said that 11 members, including him, attended the meeting, who elected Harbans Lal president, Jaswinder Singh (Congress) senior vice-president and Ravi Chawla (Congress) vice-president of the council. All the three councillors had been elected unopposed and this happened due to sharp differences between the SAD and the BJP over the issue of the presidential candidate. They could not decide on a single name, he added.

President-elect Harbans Lal said only rich persons had a say in the SAD and there was no place for the poor. He said due to the wrong policies of the SAD, he left the SAD and joined the Congress