Chandigarh mayoral polls: AAP’s Chadha guns for presiding officer, demands repoll

Claims BJP creating atmosphere in country akin to that of North Korea; wants retired high court judge to preside over “unbiased election”

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday called for legal action against presiding officer Anil Masih after he declared eight votes invalid, paving the way for the victory of BJP’s Manoj Sonkar over INDIA bloc candidate Kuldeep Dhalor to be elected as the Chandigarh mayor.

AAP MP Raghav Chadha outside the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation office on January 18 when the mayoral elections were originally scheduled. (HT file photo)

In a setback to the AAP and the Congress that had contested the elections as allies, the BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls, retaining the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. BJP nominees Kuljit Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma were declared elected to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, respectively.

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 – elections to the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. Sonkar defeated the AAP’s Kuldeep Dhalor for the mayor’s post, polling 16 votes against the 12 won by his rival. Eight of the 36 votes were declared invalid.

Addressing a press conference at Punjab Bhawan in Chandigarh, Chadha called for “a fresh, impartial election” with a retired high court judge as the presiding officer.

“The BJP is engaging in undemocratic and potentially illegal actions that are treasonous. The BJP aims to create an atmosphere in the country akin to that of North Korea,” he said.

Chadha said the INDIA alliance had 20 votes and was anticipating a clean sweep. However, he alleged the presiding officer used his own pen to mark and invalidate eight votes. He claimed the AAP had a video showing Masih engaging in fraudulent activity and said the evidence would be presented before the Punjab and Haryana high court.

Chadha urged that the court to consider this as electoral malpractice and called for an unbiased election with a retired high court judge overseeing as the presiding officer.

He accused the BJP of attempting to delay elections initially, followed by engaging in horse-trading through Operation Lotus, and asserted that they were now resorting to any means possible to secure victory in the mayoral elections.

Chadha claimed that the BJP appointed an officer from its minority wing as the presiding officer. He said election agents from parties were not permitted to inspect the invalid votes and even the deputy commissioner was not called for oversight.

He said that it was for the first time in the mayoral election that eight votes, all from the opposition parties, were declared invalid, while not a single vote from the BJP faced such disqualification.

Masih was not available for comment.