The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would hold a protest at BJP headquarters in Delhi on Friday against the "rigging" in the recent Chandigarh Mayoral election by the latter.
Kejriwal & Mann to protest 'rigging'
Senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Sandeep Pathak said on his official X account that AAP national convenor and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann would lead the protest against the BJP for its "fraud" in the mayoral election.
Allegations against the BJP
Pathak said that in the Chandigarh mayoral election, the alliance of the two parties – constituents of the INDIA bloc - had the clear majority. "First BJP tried horse trading but when it failed, it, under conspiracy, postponed the elections. After the High Court's order, the election was conducted on January 30. The AAP and Congress had 20 votes and the BJP had 16 votes. But BJP's presiding officer fraudulently invalidated our 8 votes and declared the BJP candidate as the new mayor," Pathak said.
Stating that the country was stunned to see the manner in which the votes were stolen in the said elections, he said that people lost faith in the entire election process. Pathak held that the AAP would protest at BJP headquarters in Delhi to expose BJP on Friday.
Meanwhile, detailing about the party’s protest in Delhi, the AAP, Punjab, working president, Budh Ram also alleged in a statement that BJP was destroying the democracy and electoral system of the country.
"The rigging and bullying in Chandigarh mayor elections is the latest example of this’’, he held and added that the presiding officer appointed for the said election deliberately cancelled the votes of eight councillors of the AAP and Congress and made the BJP candidate the mayor.
