Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior party leader Raghav Chadha hit out at the BJP Tuesday afternoon, accusing the party of “treason (desh droh)” and “dishonesty” after it eased to victory in the Chandigarh mayoral election held earlier today.

Mr Kejriwal’s AAP allied with the Congress for this civic poll – pitched as the first real electoral test of the INDIA bloc ahead of a Lok Sabha election in less than three months’ time – but the alliance failed to deliver. The BJP’s Manoj Sonkar won the Mayor’s seat with 16 votes in the 35+1-member municipal body. The AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar should have received 20 – including eight from the Congress – but received only 12. Eight votes were declared “invalid” triggering howls of protest from the two parties.

“The manner in which dishonesty has been done in broad daylight in the Chandigarh mayor elections is extremely worrying. If these people can stoop so low in a mayor’s election, then they can go to any extent in the country’s elections. This is very worrying…” Mr Kejriwal posted on X.

चंडीगढ़ मेयर चुनाव में दिन दहाड़े जिस तरह से बेईमानी की गई है, वो बेहद चिंताजनक है। यदि एक मेयर चुनाव में ये लोग इतना गिर सकते हैं तो देश के चुनाव में तो ये किसी भी हद तक जा सकते हैं। ये बेहद चिंताजनक है।

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 30, 2024

Mr Chadha, addressing a press conference after the results were declared, pointed out that when a vote is declared “invalid”, the presiding officer had to show the vote to agents of all parties.,

“But today this didn’t happen… neither the election agent nor the deputy commissioner was shown the ballot paper before declaring it invalid. If they can do this for mayoral polls, imagine what they can do for Lok Sabha polls,” Mr Chadha said.

An AAP councillor, Prellata, told news agency ANI, “We will approach the High Court. Today, the BJP won by deceit. The ballot was snatched from my hand. How can eight votes be invalid?”

She also declared that BJP Chandigarh Lok Sabha MP Kirron Kher “was continuously signalling…”

The AAP has accused the presiding officer, Anil Masih, of using his pen on ballot papers cast by some councillors, thereby deliberately cancelling, or invalidating, their votes.

The BJP has responded with a message of congratulations for its Chandigarh unit.

Congratulations to @BJP4Chandigarh Unit for winning the Mayor election. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji, UTs have witnessed record development. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle and still lost to BJP shows that neither their…

— Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) January 30, 2024

Party boss JP Nadda posted, “Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, union territories have witnessed record development. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle, and still lost to BJP, shows neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry.”

The Chandigarh mayoral election was to have been the landmark first win for the INDIA bloc, of which the AAP and Congress are key members. It was also supposed to indicate a happy resolution of seat-sharing squabbles between INDIA members ahead of similar talks for the Lok Sabha election.

READ | “Scorecard 1-0 In INDIA’s Favour”: AAP, Congress Tie Up For Key Polls

The AAP and Congress have been at odds over sharing Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and Delhi. Their respective state units are firmly against an alliance; Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said last week the party would field candidates for all 13 seats, and the Congress’ Partap Bajwa, speaking exclusively to NDTV, shot back, “This is what cadre in Punjab wanted from the beginning!”

READ | “Thank You, Mann Sahab”: Punjab Congress Leader To NDTV On AAP’s Solo Plan

Ultimately, though, the loss has further weakened the opposition group, which is already on the edge of collapse after two of its biggest members – Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) walked out. In the latter case, Nitish’s switch to the BJP made matters worse.

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Indian Navy has helped in rescuing a Sri Lankan fishing trawler from pirates off the Somalian coast, officials said on Tuesday, thwarting a third hijacking attempt in the last three days. The vessel was finally intercepted in Seychelles by their coast guard with the help of inputs from the Indian Navy.

All six crew members are safe and their vessel is being escorted to Mahe in Seychelles, the Navy said.

Lorenzo Putha 04, a Sri Lankan flagged vessel, was hijacked by three pirates off the Mogadishu coast on Saturday. In response, Indian Navy deployed its patrol vessel INS Sharada and sent Sea Guardian drones to locate the hijacked vessel.

The trawler was intercepted by Seychelles Coast Guard on Monday following coordination and information sharing through the Sri Lanka and Seychelles liaison officers, said the Navy.

“In a coordinated multilateral response to the hijacking of a Sri Lankan fishing vessel, the Indian Navy in collaboration with Seychelles Defence Forces and Sri Lanka Navy successfully intercepted and rescued the hijacked vessel,” they said.

There has been a rise in attacks on ships and hijackings since Israel-Hamas war began. Somalian waters and surrounding areas have a troubled history of piracy, including in Gulf of Aden and the Somali Sea.

Ira Khan and Nupur Shikhare officially got married in Mumbai earlier this month, and then headed to Udaipur, Rajasthan for their lavish wedding celebrations.

Following the festivities, the couple jetted off to Bali for their honeymoon. Taking to Instagram, the newly married pair posted photos of their matching turtle tattoos.

Sharing the pictures on Instagram stories, Ira wrote, “That’s just mad. I’m going to be staring at it all day long.”

While, Nupur also shared a story which read, “Taking some island back.”

Nupur Shikhare posted a video from his scuba diving adventure at the Gili Islands. During the dive, he encountered a turtle that likely served as the muse for his tattoo. In his caption, he wrote, “Had the most beautiful time diving here at Gili-T.” Ira commented on the post, “Haan. Okay. Now let’s look at what you posted.” She added in another comment, “I love you.” She also wrote “turtle,” adding a couple of emojis.

Ira is the youngest of Aamir Khan’s two children with his ex-wife Reena Dutta. In September 2022, Nupur Shikhare and Ira Khan got engaged. Nupur Shikhare popped the question to Ira during his participation in Ironman Italy.

See Also: Watch: Aamir Khan gets emotional in Ira Khan and Nupur Shikhare’s wedding video