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Chandigarh mayoral polls: Presiding officer reacts to AAP's 'defaced ballot papers' charge
The Bharatiya Janata Party's mayoral candidate won the election despite the alliance having more support in the council.
Chandigarh: Anil Masih, the presiding officer for the Chandigarh mayoral elections, claimed on Tuesday that the councillors of the Aam Aadmi Party-Congress alliance tore up the ballot papers after he declared the results. He was reacting to AAP's charge that he defaced the ballot papers himself and later declared them invalid.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's mayoral candidate won the election despite the alliance having more support in the council, after the presiding officer declared eight votes "invalid".
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of winning through cheating.
"A total of 36 votes were cast. When we were issuing the ballot papers, a few AAP and Congress Councillors were concerned that the papers had spots and marks - so, they asked me to change around 11 ballot papers. I honoured their request and kept the ballot papers in question on the side and issued them fresh ballot papers...When I finished the counting of votes, I was about to declare the results as per the process. BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar received 16 votes and AAP candidate Kuldeep received 12 votes; 8 votes were invalid...I asked the polling agent of the AAP-Congress candidate to check the ballot paper but instead of doing that AAP and a few Congress councillors jumped on the table to disrupt the process, captured the ballot papers and tore them up," he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Also read: Chandigarh mayoral polls: AAP’s Chadha guns for presiding officer, demands repoll
AAP's Raghav Chadha said the BJP carried out treason today. He claimed the party appointed its office bearer as the presiding officer.
"The video captures how the presiding officer marked the votes with his hand and declared them invalid. While declaring the votes invalid, the ballot paper was not shown to the agents of the parties and the reason for canceling the vote was also not given. As soon as the counting was over, the presiding officer quickly left the house with the ballot paper and after that no one knew what was done with the ballot paper," he wrote on X.
Kejriwal today claimed the BJP stole votes and made their candidate win.
"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.
In the mayoral polls, BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar (16 votes) defeated the AAP's Kuldeep Kumar (12 votes). Eight votes were declared invalid.
In Chandigarh, the councillors of the INDIA bloc parties -- AAP and Congress -- protested as soon as the results were announced.
Kejriwal pointed out that 25 percent of the total votes were declared invalid.
The elections were originally scheduled on January 18. However, on the day of the polling, the elections were postponed citing the ill health of Masih.
Last week, the Punjab and Haryana High Court called the administration's action "unreasonable, unjustified and arbitrary."
With inputs from PTI
