Chandigarh mayor resigns ahead of SC hearing over rigging

Chandigarh: A day ahead of the Supreme Court’s hearing in the mayoral poll matter, BJP leader Manoj Sonkar resigned as Chandigarh mayor on Sunday evening.

Sonkar has submitted his resignation to the municipal commissioner, said Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Arun Sood said three AAP councillors have joined the BJP.

The Supreme Court is hearing the matter pertaining to the alleged tampering in the mayoral election in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. Sonkar won the poll which was seen as the first electoral tussle against the INDIA bloc by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Kuldeep Kumar - on January 30. BJP secured 16 votes and Kuldeep Singh, the joint candidate of the Congress and AAP was able to manage 12 votes. Eight votes were declared invalid by the presiding officer whose decision was challenged by AAP.

The Supreme Court had on February 5 come down heavily on the presiding officer Anil Masih who conducted the Chandigarh Mayor elections, saying it was “obvious that he has defaced the ballot papers”.The Supreme Court also ordered the indefinite deferment of the Chandigarh civic body’s first meeting scheduled for February 7.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud heard the plea filed by AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar challenginga Punjab and Haryana High Court order, which had refused to grant any interim relief to their application seeking fresh elections under the supervision of a retired judge.

Appalled by the alleged defacing of ballot papers, the Supreme Court had said it amounted to a mockery of democracy and ordered that the ballots and the video of the electoral proceedings be preserved.”Is this the behaviour of a returning officer? He looks at the camera, and defaces the ballot obviously,” Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said after viewing a video of the counting.

The AAP and Congress described the court’s observations as a “tight slap” for the BJP. The mayoral poll, originally scheduled for January 18, was deferred to February 6 by the Chandigarh administration after the presiding officer fell ill.The High Court on January 24 directed the administration to hold the mayoral polls at 10 am on January 30. The AAP had first approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court and sought fresh elections under the supervision of a retired judge but the court refused to grant any interim relief. Kuldeep Kumar, who lost the Chandigarh mayoral election, then went to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s order.