CHANDIGARH: The BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls on Tuesday, retaining the three top posts in a setback to the AAP and the Congress, which had contested the elections as allies. BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was declared as mayor of Chandigarh after he won 16 votes against the 12 votes bagged by Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar “Tita”. Eight votes were declared invalid, which led the Opposition leaders to raise allegations of rigging.
The mayoral polls are considered significant as it was the maiden electoral test of the Opposition’s INDIA alliance against the BJP, and also saw the first alliance between the AAP and the Congress. Opposition leaders alleged there was tampering with the ballot papers at the elections, a charge that was rejected outright by the BJP.
Councillors from the two INDIA bloc parties created a ruckus in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation House as the result for the mayor's post was declared, and boycotted the next phase – the elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. BJP nominees Kuljit Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma were later declared elected to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor respectively.
Lok Sabha MP and actor Kirron Kher, who is an ex-officio member of the House, cast her vote first. A total of 36 votes were polled during the hour-long process. While the AAP and Congress together had 20 votes, the BJP had 15 votes, plus one from the ex-officio member, Ms Kher.
The AAP challenged the mayoral poll results before the Punjab and Haryana high court, which is expected to take up the matter on Wednesday. The mayoral elections were held on the directions of the high court after a postponement on January 18.
In New Delhi, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal alleged that the BJP indulged in “hooliganism” during the mayoral polls, and called the series of events during the election a “black day for democracy”.
Addressing a press conference, the Delhi chief minister said the entire country saw what happened in the Chandigarh polls. “It is a black day for democracy. Everyone saw how they stole votes and forcibly made their candidate win. The issue is not who becomes mayor but the country should not lose and the democracy should not lose. Mayors come and go, parties come and go,” he said.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann also alleged there was “cheating” in the mayoral polls, and said now his worry is that those who did the “cheating” can go to any extent in the parliamentary elections.
AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal also joined in the attack against the BJP, alleging a “brazen, shameless capture of the democratic system.” He said: “Declaring Opposition votes invalid to win the mayor election shows that it is second nature for the BJP to override the democratic mandate. First they abruptly postponed the elections, and then devised a way to capture it. This is a warning for all those who are deluded into thinking that the Modi-led BJP will allow democracy to function if they win in 2024.”
BJP president J.P. Nadda, however, said that the defeat of the INDIA bloc candidate in the mayoral polls has shown that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry. He congratulated his party unit in the Union territory for the victory. He wrote on X: “Congratulations to the Chandigarh BJP unit for winning the mayor election.”
The BJP has 14 councillors in the 35-member corporation. The AAP has 13 councillors and the Congress seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor.
In Punjab, the AAP and the Congress have indicated that they are reluctant to contest the Lok Sabha polls together even though they are both in the INDIA bloc. But they agreed to contest together in the mayoral elections in Chandigarh. As part of the alliance, the AAP contested the mayor's post while the Congress fielded candidates for the two other posts.
The polls were originally scheduled for January 18 but 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 the Congress and the AAP councillors. On January 24, the high court directed the Chandigarh administration to hold the mayoral polls at 10 am on January 30. While quashing the order postponing the elections, the court called it “unreasonable, unjustified and arbitrary”.
Elections to the three posts are held every year during the House's five-year term. The Congress had abstained from voting in 2022 and 2023, leading to a BJP victory.The election for the mayor's post is through a secret ballot. In this year's elections, the post was reserved for a candidate from the Scheduled Caste category.
