Registering a big win, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the Chandigarh mayor elections on Tuesday by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-Congress alliance. The mayoral poll was the first clash between BJP and the INDIA bloc before the Lok Sabha elections.

BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar bagged 16 votes and won the mayor’s post by defeating AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar, who bagged 12 votes, PTI reported.

Chaos erupted in the house as the AAP-Congress protested the decision to declare eight votes invalid, effectively leading to Sonkar’s victory.

Also Read: BJP vs Opposition in Chandigarh mayor election today, litmus test for INDIA bloc after Nitish Kumar’s exit

With this win, the BJP has maintained its eight-year dominance for the mayor’s position. 

This contest signified the first face-off between the NDA and the INDIA bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, following Nitish Kumar’s unexpected switch. AAP and Congress, both members of the INDIA bloc, had allied to take on the BJP.

Initially scheduled for January 18, the mayoral polls faced a postponement to February 6 due to the illness of presiding officer Anil Masih, coupled with concerns about the prevailing law-and-order situation. Legal hurdles marred the election process, with the Punjab and Haryana High Court directing the Chandigarh administration, in a January 24 order, to proceed with the mayoral polls on January 30, deeming the earlier postponement “unreasonable, unjustified, and arbitrary.”