The AAP-Congress combination questioned how eight of their votes were ruled invalid by the presiding officer, tipping the scales in favour of BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar, who was declared the winner, sending the hotly contested election for the position of Mayor in the Union Territory of Chandigarh into chaos on Tuesday.
The BJP also won the positions of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, while the incensed AAP-Congress combination—the first alliance among the INDIA bloc constituents—alleged fraud and abstained from the election process for the other positions.
After losing to the alliance’s candidate for mayor, AAP councillor Kuldeep Singh Tita broke down in tears. Later, he petitioned the Punjab and Haryana High Court, requesting that the election be declared void since it was a “complete fraud.” On Wednesday, his petition will be considered.
Chief Minister of Punjab Bhagwant Singh Mann denounced the way the elections were handled, referring to it as “the death of democracy.”
AAP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who called it “a black day for democracy,” said, “Gandhiji was assassinated on this date and after 76 years, they have murdered democracy… Anyone can win or lose elections, but the country should not lose… The issue is that they have won the Chandigarh Mayoral elections with open fraud.”
Election agents from the AAP and Congress were allegedly not let to view the ballot papers, according to Pawan Kumar Bansal, a former Chandigarh Congress MP and minister in the previous UPA administration.
“The presiding officer announced the rejection of eight votes, declared the BJP candidate the winner and went away. BJP members rushed to the table and tore the ballot papers,” Bansal said.
It should be noted that, in a first, the polling process was shown live on a screen outside the Municipal House, and the media was barred from the House.
The Mayor, who is chosen for a one-year term, can only set the agenda and summon meetings. Three mayoral positions were been aside for Scheduled Caste candidates this year.
At first glance, it appeared that the alliance, consisting of 13 AAP and 7 Congress council members against 14 BJP council members, had the advantage with 20 votes. Even BJP MP Kirron Kher cast a ballot. The SAD was represented by one council member.
With 36 votes up for grabs, the Congress-AAP alliance was sure they would win. However, only 12 of its votes were cast in favour of its candidate, and eight of those were ruled to be illegitimate. With 16 votes in his support, BJP candidate Sonkar was proclaimed the winner.
Anil Masih, a BJP minority cell general secretary and nominated councillor, was accused by the AAP of having personally scraped the ballot papers to make them invalid, a claim he denied.
“I invited poll workers from the two parties to come forward and verify the ballots,” Masih declared. Rather, two AAP council members made an attempt to grab the ballot papers, which were somewhat shredded. Thankfully, the Chandigarh Police stepped in and sealed the ballots. Everything has been captured on camera.”
Voting started at 11:13 a.m., nearly an hour later. Voting, according to Deputy Commissioner Vinay Pratap Singh, would be done ward by ward. The DC denied the existence of a NOTA clause to the lone SAD councillor.
Eight votes were deemed illegal shortly after the counting started due to accusations made by Congress and AAP council members that Masih was writing on ballot papers.
There was a ruckus in the House when Masih announced that BJP’s Sonkar had won with sixteen votes, and marshals were sent in to calm things down.
The coalition refrained from participating in the polls for Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, both of which were won by the BJP.
The AAP denied the BJP’s accusation that AAP council members attempted to approach the dais and rip up the voting papers as soon as Sonkar stood to assume the mayor’s seat. Rather, the AAP claimed that the BJP had torn the voting papers.
The BJP’s Chandigarh in-charge and former mayor, Arun Sood, told a news agency that the Congress and AAP were unable to keep their flock together.
“For personal reasons, Pawan Bansal and (AAP Rajya Sabha MP) Raghav Chadha formed an alliance, not between the two parties. Sood claimed, “They did not trust their own council members who had been held captive for days before to this election.”
“Even when using the lavatory, the council members were ordered not to lock the door. This mistrust finally resulted in gaps and this outcome. “All sixteen of our votes stood,” he declared.
The presiding officer reported sick, thus the elections, which were originally set for January 18, had to be postponed at the last minute. Masih claimed he was admitted to the Sector 16 government hospital with a backache.
A day earlier, in response to the unity of the opposition, Raghav Chadha declared that the alliance marked the beginning of the end for BJP government.
Following that, there was a plan to move the polls to February 6, but the AAP filed a petition with the High Court, forcing the polls to be held on January 30.
