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Mayoral polls fiasco: Ruckus as Chandigarh Police detain protesting AAP leaders
Amid the melee, AAP’s Chandigarh in-charge Dr Sunny Ahluwalia fell on the road, suffering minor injuries and losing his turban
High drama unfolded outside the office of the Chandigarh municipal corporation in Sector 17 on Sunday after police detained Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders and councillors who were protesting against the alleged rigging of votes in the January 30 mayoral polls.
They were taken to the Sector 39 police station and released after around two hours.
Amid the melee, AAP’s Chandigarh in-charge Dr Sunny Ahluwalia fell on the road, suffering minor injuries and losing his turban.
Dr Ahluwalia said they had launched a relay hunger strike in front of the Chandigarh municipal corporation office that will continue till they get justice. “Five AAP leaders (one councillor and four volunteers) will remain on hunger strike for 24 hours. The next day another five leaders will be fasting against the ‘murderers of democracy’,” he said.
Dr Ahluwalia said it was a relay hunger strike against the “vote chor BJP”. “To save our democracy, the strike will go on until action is taken against Anil Masih, the presiding officer who is responsible for vote rigging in the mayoral election, and until the fake mayor of BJP is removed,” he said.
“In the garb of the presiding officer to oversee the mayoral elections, he is actually the minority wing secretary of the BJP. He murdered the democracy in Chandigarh on January 30, and all senior AAP leaders of Chandigarh, including Pradeep Chhabra, Chandarmukhi Sharma, Prem Lata and councillors, have decided to stage a demonstration against it,” Dr Ahluwalia said, adding that AAP will also hold candlelight marches at prominent places of Chandigarh like Rose Garden and Sukhna Lake, and will also go from door-to-door to make people aware about “BJP’s dictatorship”.
Mayor’s first House meeting on February 7
Amid the Opposition’s ongoing furore, newly elected BJP mayor Manoj Sonkar will be presiding over the first House meeting on February 7, where the municipal corporation will be deciding the budget for financial year 2024-25.
Surprisingly, for the first time, copies of the budget will be issued to the councillors only on the day of the meeting.
In the January 30 election, Sonkar was declared the winner after presiding officer Anil Masih declared eight votes invalid, sparking allegations of vote tampering in the first electoral showdown between the ruling party and the 27-party INDIA alliance.
In the Chandigarh MC House of 35, the INDIA bloc candidate, Kuldeep Dhalor, was tipped to win after the AAP, with 13 members, and the Congress, with 7, joined hands and supported a joint nominee.
Live broadcast from MC’s assembly hall had showed Masih making some marks on the ballot papers, followed by a scuffle as Opposition members alleged he had intentionally invalidated the votes with “tick and dot” marks to declare the BJP candidate winner.
No official reason was given for the decision during the announcement of the results or even eight hours later, when deputy commissioner Vinay Pratap finally came out with an official statement. Masih eventually said the eight ballot papers had some “pen marks”.
