AAP moves Punjab & Haryana HC challenging Sarabjit Kaur's election as Chandigarh Mayor

Unrelenting in its fight against BJP, AAP moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the election of Sarabjit Kaur as the new Mayor of Chandigarh city. The petition filed by AAP's Mayoral candidate Anju Katyal and two other councillors Prem Lata and Ram Chander Yadav sought fresh elections to the Mayor's post. As per reports, they argued that AAP had won the election with a margin of two votes over the BJP candidate with 8 defective ballot votes being kept aside.

However, the Arvind Kejriwal-led party alleged that the prescribed authority started to reconsider these rejected votes. To buttress its point, it highlighted that the entire election process had been videographed. According to the petitioners, the presiding officer declared one vote cast in the favour of AAP as "cancelled" under "pressure" from BJP after the final tally headed for a tie with 14 votes each to Katyal and Kaur. 

BJP springs surprise in Chandigarh Mayor polls

In a curious turn of events on January 8, BJP stunned AAP by winning the Mayoral election in Chandigarh despite the latter having the maximum councillors in the Municipal Corporation. While BJP's Sarabjit Kaur was elected as the new Mayor with 14 votes, AAP candidate Anju Katyal could secure only 13 votes. On December 27, AAP had emerged as the single-largest party in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation by winning 14 out of 35 wards whereas BJP, Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal won 12, 8 and one ward respectively.

But, AAP suffered a setback on January 2 as newly elected Congress councillor Harpreet Kaur Babla defected to BJP. While the saffron party's tally swelled to 13, it technically had 14 votes as Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher is an ex-officio member of the civic body. Thus, BJP was neck-to-neck with AAP and both parties required 5 votes each to get its councillor elected as the Mayor. Ultimately, the fact that one vote of AAP was declared "invalid" and 7 Congress councillors and 1 SAD member abstaining from voting turned the tide in the JP Nadda-led party's favour. 

After the declaration of the result, councillors belonging to the Arvind Kejriwal-led party protested on the floor of the House. Taking to Twitter, Chandigarh BJP secretary Tajinder Singh Sran remarked, "Heartiest Congratulations to Sarabjit Kaur Ji for becoming Mayor of City Beautiful Chandigarh as Chandigarh BJP candidate. Our city will see a new pace of development under your guidance".