Kejriwal Claims ‘Cheating In Broad Daylight' After BJP Defeats INDIA Bloc In Chandigarh Mayoral Polls

The victory of BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar in the Chandigarh mayoral elections was attributed by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal to "cheating in broad daylight," on Teusday.

In his first reaction to the development, it was stated by him that if the mayoral elections witnessed the BJP "stooping so low," any extent could be gone to by them to win the Lok Sabha elections, reported Hindustan Times.

Kejiriwal's first response after Chandigarh defeat

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Delhi CM wrote in Hindi, "The manner in which cheating 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."

AAP Cries After Facing Defeat in Chandigarh

Foul cries are raised by AAP after Chandigarh defeat. Meanwhile, a claim was made by AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj that the BJP victory was a broad daylight robbery.

"In Chandigarh, the BJP has 14 councillors, while the AAP and Congress have 13 and 7 councillors, respectively. Akali Dal, meanwhile, has just one councillor. The AAP-Congress alliance had 20 councillors while the BJP-Akali Dal combine had 15 councillors. The AAP-Congress alliance clearly had a majority. There was no question that the BJP could win this," he claimed.

AAP MP Raghav Chadha said the victory is illegal and unconstitutional.

"This was not just an unconstitutional and illegal thing but also a treason. Whatever happened today during the mayoral elections in Chandigarh can only be called a treason," he said.

Chadha claimed the BJP employed illegal tactics to win the mayoral elections.

"For the first time in the Chandigarh mayoral elections, 8 out of the 36 votes were declared invalid. The Congress and AAP alliance had to get 20 votes. We got 12 votes and 8 were declared invalid. Not a single vote of the BJP was declared invalid," said Chadha.

In the mayoral elections in Chandigarh, BJP's Manoj Sonkar defeated AAP's Kuldeep Kumar, on Teusday. The election was contested by AAP in alliance with the Congress, and together, the AAP-Congress alliance had more votes in the 35-strong assembly than the BJP.

Originally scheduled on January 18, the mayoral elections were indefinitely postponed due to the illness of the presiding officer, as ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the election was held on January 30.

Further, a video is circulating on social media platforms in which the AAP claims that the "presiding officer is manipulating votes".

BJP Chief lauds victory of Punjab

BJP chief JP Nadda for the victory of the Punjab unit of the party. Taking to X, he wrote, "Congratulations to BJP Chandigarh Unit for winning the Mayor election. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, UTs have witnessed record development. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle and still lost to BJP shows that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry."

What happened in Chandigarh mayoral elections?

In the Chandigarh mayoral elections, Manoj Sonkar secured 16 votes, while Kumar obtained 12, and eight votes were declared invalid. A protest was launched by the councillors of the INDIA bloc parties AAP and Congress as soon as the results were declared. The newly elected mayor will now conduct elections for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, with the Congress fielding candidates for these two positions. The Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, with 35 members, has 14 BJP councillors, 13 AAP councillors, seven Congress councillors, and one councillor from the Shiromani Akali Dal, reported PTI.