Chandigarh: Ahead of the crucial Supreme Court hearing on the alleged irregularities in the recently-conducted Municipal Corporation Election in Chandigarh, three AAP councillors – Poonam Devi, Neha, Gurcharan Kala – late Sunday evening joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Republic has learnt. The move of changing political alignments by former AAP members comes moments after the newly-elected Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar tendered his resignation to the municipal commissioner amid allegations that the January 30 polls were “rigged”.

Interestingly, the developments come days after Delhi Chief Minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal alleged foul-play in the election. 

Noteworthily, the BJP had swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls, in a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance that had alleged tampering with ballot papers by the presiding officer.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had rapped the returning officer who conducted the mayoral polls, observing that it was obvious that he defaced the ballot papers, and that he should be prosecuted, adding that his action amounted to "murder and mockery" of democracy, news agency PTI reported.

The court had also ordered preservation of ballots and the video of the poll proceedings besides seeking the returning officer's personal appearance during the next hearing in the case on February 19.