Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for its “dishonesty” after its candidate, Manoj Sonkar, won the Chandigarh mayor election held earlier on Tuesday.
Taking to X, Arvind Kejriwal said, “The manner in which dishonesty has been done in broad daylight in the Chandigarh mayor elections is extremely worrying. If these people can stoop so low in a mayor’s election, then they can go to any extent in the country’s elections. This is very worrying.”
Sharing a video of the counting of votes on X, the Aam Aadmi Party claimed rigging of the votes by the presiding officer who allegedly manipulated the ballot papers.
Also Read: BJP wins Chandigarh mayor election against AAP-Congress combine, upset for INDIA bloc
The party stated, “BJP murdered democracy in Chandigarh mayor election. The victory was certain after the INDIA Alliance had a majority in the mayoral election. But the BJP crossed all limits of shamelessness to win the mayoral election by committing hooliganism. If BJP is making such a push in a mayor election, what will it do if it loses the Lok Sabha elections?”
The party’s reaction comes following the decision to deem eight votes as invalid.
BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Sonkar was declared the winner in the Chandigarh mayoral election held on Tuesday after 8 votes of the AAP-Congress opposition alliance candidate Kuldeep Singh were declared invalid. This was the first poll battle between the INDIA bloc – AAP and Congress – and the BJP.
Sonkar secured 16 votes out of the 36 total polled votes, including the vote of ex-officio member Kirron Kher MP; the INDIA bloc candidate Kuldeep Singh secured 20 votes. However, 8 votes were declared invalid, and the BJP candidate emerged victorious.
Physical confrontations and a crying AAP candidate followed the poll results.
The decision to declare the votes invalid led to chaos as the AAP-Congress protested. The AAP announced that they will approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court, questioning the decision.
Addressing reporters after the results, Raghav Chadha claimed that all eight votes declared “invalid” by Mr Masih had been for his party’s candidate. Had those votes counted, the AAP would have won.
“This is an act of treason (desh droh). Our eight votes declared (invalid)… not one vote of BJP was declared invalid,” he said, “When a vote is declared invalid, the Presiding Officer has to show agents of all parties (the ballot paper). But today this didn’t happen…” the AAP Rajya Sabha MP said.