INDI Cries Foul After Losing Chandigarh Mayoral Polls, Reaches High Court

Chandigarh Mayoral Polls: After suffering a humiliating defeat in the Chandigarh Mayoral Elections, INDI leaders cried foul with Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal accusing the BJP of "dishonesty". "Gandhiji was assassinated on this date and after 76 years, they (BJP) have murdered the democracy... It is a black day for democracy. They did hooliganism openly and it is captured on camera. The whole country is seeing how they stole votes... Anyone can win or lose elections, the country should not lose... The issue is that they have won the Chandigarh Mayoral elections with open fraud", said Kejriwal, while addressing a presser. Echoing similar sentiments, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said democracy had been "looted". "All 16 on their side know how to vote and 8 on our side don't even know to vote!...Democracy was 'looted' today...Anil Masih is the Head of the BJP Minority Wing. They made their officer bearer the presiding officer. On 18th January he said that he had a problem in his spine so he couldn't come (for election). Today, I came to know that he was absolutely right. He didn't even have a spine. He is spineless. If he had a spine, he would have counted (the votes) properly", said Mann.   

Earlier in the day, AAP leader Raghav Chadha alleged‘ irregularities in the polls’. The Opposition alliance has also filed a petition challenging the mayoral polls. The Punjab and Haryana High Court is scheduled to hear the matter tomorrow. "Whatever we saw during the Chandigarh mayor election was not only unconstitutional but was treason...The illegality that we saw in the Chandigarh mayor election can only be called treason...", AAP leader Raghav Chadha claimed as BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar defeated his party's Kuldeep Kumar. Venting out his anger, Chadha further said, "This shows that BJP for a mayor election can use all illegal tactics what would they do during the Lok Sabha elections seeing their loss? Does the BJP want to make this country North Korea?..."

Chadha also demanded action against the President Officer. "Action should be taken against the Presiding Officer. He should be arrested, he has done treason...We will file a complaint & demand not just an inquiry but his arrest..." Moreover he added,"This is not a setback for one coalition, one alliance or one party. It is a setback for India's democracy...We are aggrieved and hurt & we are worried as to what will happen in the upcoming 2024 polls. If the BJP can resort to such low levels & commit forgery & illegality...BJP can go to any level to rig the election process..."

Echoing similar sentiments, Delhi minister & AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj says, "This is robbery. In Chandigarh, there are 36 Councillor seats out of which 14 seats are BJPs & 13 seats are AAPs and 7 seats of Congress. Total AAP (13 + 7) has 20 seats...BJP has been exposed again..."

Earlier in the day, councillors of INDI bloc parties AAP and Congress protested as soon as the results were announced. From Delhi, AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of "cheating".  In a post on 'X', Kejriwal expressed "serious concern" over the "cheating" carried out in broad daylight. "If these people can stoop to this level in a mayoral poll, they can go to any extent in the national elections," the Delhi chief minister said in an apparent reference to the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. "This is very worrying," he said. As part of the alliance, the AAP was contesting for the mayor's post while the Congress has fielded candidates for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

The polls, being held following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, assume significance with opposition INDI bloc members Congress and AAP joining hands, even though they are yet to agree on seat-sharing in Punjab. The BJP has 14 councillors in the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. The AAP has 13 councillors and the Congress seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor.  

The polls were originally scheduled for January 18 but were deferred to February 6 by the Chandigarh administration after the presiding officer fell ill. The administration had at that time also said the polls were postponed after assessing the law-and-order situation.

The administration's order deferring the polls had triggered protests by Congress and AAP councillors. Kuldeep Kumar had challenged the Chandigarh deputy commissioner's order to defer the elections in the high court.

In its January 24 order, the high court directed the Chandigarh administration to hold the mayoral polls at 10 am on January 30. It also quashed the administration's January 18 order postponing the elections while holding it "unreasonable, unjustified and arbitrary".

The high court had also directed that the councillors who come to cast their votes shall not be accompanied by any supporters or security personnel belonging to any other state.