Chandigarh: In another historic triumph for the saffron party, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the Chandigarh Mayoral Elections of which the results were announced on Tuesday. The BJP won the elections with 16 votes in the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. The party has elected 39-year-old BJP Councillor Manoj Sonkar as the new Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. The Congress-AAP's mayoral candidate got 12 votes while 8 votes were declared as invalid in the elections.
Arvind Kejriwal cries foul
Meanwhile Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has launched a scathing attack on BJP. Taking X, Arvind Kejriwal said, "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."
INDI alliance was confident of its victory
Needing support of 19 corporators to win the elections, INDI alliance was confident of its victory with 13 AAP and seven Congress corporators. However, opposition BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar was elected as mayor. He will now preside over election of senior deputy and deputy mayor election.
Marshalls were called in as soon as a chaos was reported in the house
Marshalls were called in as soon as a chaos was reported in the house as the results were declared. Opposition members staged protest and shouted slogans against the BJP. BJP got 16 votes in its favour while the AAP-Congress combined got 12 votes. A total of eight votes were declared invalid.
The elections were deferred at the last minute
The elections were deferred at the last minute triggering protest from AAP and Congress corporators that BJP was trying to manipulate the outcome of the election.
The elections were scheduled to be held on February 6
The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on February 6. But the Punjab and Haryana High Court directed the UT administration to hold the elections on January 30. In the 35-member corporation, AAP and Congress combine have 20 votes while BJP has 15, including that of Chandigarh MP Kiron Kher.
