Amid the allegations of the INDIA bloc against the BJP of voting discrepancies during the Chandigarh Mayoral elections, AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar broke down in front of the media after losing Chandigarh Mayor’s post by 2 votes from BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar.
The BJP mayoral candidate Manoj Sonkar won 16 votes during the election, whereas, Kuldeep Singh, a joint candidate of Congress and AAP managed to secure only 12 votes. Whereas, eight votes were declared invalid.
After the announcement of the result, the AAP and the Congress attacked the BJP and alleged the saffron party of “shameless capture” of the democratic system in the country.
The BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls retaining the three top posts in a setback to the AAP and the Congress which had contested the elections as allies.
After the announcement of the result, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal called the polls a “Black day for democracy”. Later in the day, the AAP and Congress filed a joint petition in the Punjab-Haryana High Court expressing concerns about the integrity of the recently conducted mayoral elections in Chandigarh.
The matter will be taken up by the HC on Wednesday. The hearing will take place tomorrow morning after both the parties file a petition regarding the mayoral elections, said Ferry Sofat, the lawyer representing the AAP and Congress in the Punjab Haryana High Court.
“What BJP did today to finish democracy – the whole country watched it. They tried to hijack the election. We have challenged the entire process in this writ petition. We have also submitted proper evidence…,” said Sofat mentioning that the HC, in its previous hearing, had stated that the Mayor polls should be conducted freely and fairly with the entire voting process being videographed.
After the rejection of multiple votes during vote counting, AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj alleged “robbery” by the BJP, describing their victory as a “blatant theft.”
BJP’s Manoj Sonkar’s victory in the Chandigarh mayoral elections marked the first direct electoral contest between the BJP and the Opposition INDIA bloc. The elections were rescheduled on the directions of the Punjab-Haryana High Court.
Rejecting the INDIA bloc’s allegations of discrepancies, newly-elected Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar said, “Wherever they don’t have their way, they level allegations…Everything is on camera. But when they couldn’t digest their defeat, they created this atmosphere and started blaming us.”
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Published: 30 Jan 2024, 06:30 PM IST