The INDIA alliance’s Congress-AAP candidate lost the seat despite having the maximum number of councillors.
Punjab And Haryana High Court: Acting on a petition alleging fraud in the election for the post of mayor held on Tuesday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday sought a response from the Chandigarh administration and the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh though no interim order was passed on a stay on the results of the election.
Issuing a notice on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) mayoral candidate Kuldeep Kumar’s petition, a division bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger asked the respondents to file replies within three weeks.
The decision was challenged by AAP and Congress Party’s Joint Candidate Kuldeep Kumar who accused the Presiding Officer of resorting to fraud and forgery in the counting process.
In a major setback to the INDIA bloc’s Congress-AAP alliance on Tuesday, the municipal corporation ruling BJP retained the mayoral seat for the ninth time in a row by winning the post with just four votes.
The INDIA alliance’s Congress-AAP candidate lost the seat despite having the maximum number of councillors as eight out of 36 votes were declared invalid by presiding authority Anil Masih, a nominated councillor, with no voting right.
The BJP got 16 votes, while the AAP-Congress alliance had 12 votes despite having 20 councillors following which AAP-Congress joint candidate Kuldeep Kumar prayed for a fresh election in a free and fair manner under the supervision of a retired High Court judge.
In the petition, he alleged in a complete departure from the practice and rules, the presiding officer refused to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.
“The presiding officer in most flimsy manner addressed to the House that he does not want any assistance from the members nominated by the parties contesting the election and he will count the vote himself. The voices were raised by the Aam Admi Party and the Congress but their requests were not heeded, but surprisingly the Deputy Commissioner and the prescribed authority, who was also in the same capacity in the last year’s election, remained mum,” the petition said.
In the mayoral polls, BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar with 16 votes defeated AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar with 12 votes while eight votes were declared invalid.
Following the declaration of the result, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called the series of events a “black day for democracy”.
Addressing a press conference, the AAP national convener said, “The AAP-Congress alliance had a clear majority and it was a straight election. Eight votes or 25 per cent of the total votes were declared invalid. What kind of election was this? The mayoral poll result shows there is something wrong and at a large scale, they can go to any extent in national polls.”
(With IANS inputs)