Controversy surrounds Chandigarh Mayoral Election as BJP candidate declared winner on '8 invalid' votes

BJP's Chandigarh mayoral candidate was on Tuesday declared winner in an election which drew allegations of fraud by INDIA bloc allies Congress and AAP after eight votes were declared invalid. BJP's Manoj Sonkar won 16 votes and AAP's Kuldeep Kumar 12.

AAP had 13 councillors and Congress 7. Later in the day, AAP's candidate Kuldeep Kumar filed a petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court pleading that the polls be declared invalid as it was "complete fraud and forgery". The petitioner asked for fresh polls under the supervision of a retired HC judge.

The Congress-AAP alliance alleged presiding officer Anil Masih 'tampered' with ballot papers after 8 votes were declared invalid. Masih had incidentally put off the polls after he reportedly fell ill on the date the polls were originally scheduled to be held. Masih is a member of BJP's minority cell. BJP rubbished the allegations of fraud.


After the result for the mayor's post was declared, AAP and Congress councilors created a ruckus in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation House and boycotted the next phase of elections for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. As a consequence, BJP nominees Kuljit Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma were declared elected as senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively, securing 16 votes each.