Cong., AAP, Akalis oppose Chandigarh plan of Central govt.

The Centre’s proposal to include the Union Territory (UT) of Chandigarh under the ambit of Article 240 of the Constitution, which empowers the President to make regulations for the UT and legislate directly, has raised a political furore in Punjab. The government will bring the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the upcoming Winter Session of Parliament, beginning December 1, 2025, as per a bulletin of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.

Political parties, including the Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the proposed introduction of the Bill, which would bring Chandigarh in alignment with other UTs without legislatures. The claim over Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, has been a sensitive political issue ever since the Punjab Reorganisation Act of1966.

Punjab’s Leader of the Opposition and Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa took to social media to criticise the move. “Chandigarh was created in 1966 as Punjab’s capital, with the Punjab Governor serving as its Administrator for decades. Now the Centre’s 131st Amendment move to pull Chandigarh under Article 240 is nothing short of snatching the city away from Punjab – an open attack on history, federalism, and Punjab’s rights. The BJP govt is pushing a politically loaded Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to recast Chandigarh like any other UT,” he posted on X.

SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal asked the Union government not to introduce the Bill, pointing out that doing so would amount to “betraying and discriminating against brave Punjabis who had sacrificed the most for the country” and going back on all commitments made to Punjab to hand over Chandigarh to it. “It seeks to end Punjab’s claim to Chandigarh as its capital city,” he said in a statement.

AAP’s Lok Sabha MP Malvinder Kang termed the move as a “daylight robbery”. “This moment demands unity. Every MP from Punjab, across all political lines, must stand together, forge a common front, and defeat this amendment in the Winter Session,” he posted on X.