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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