Chandigarh Mayor Resigns Ahead Of Supreme Court Hearing, Three AAP Councillors Join BJP Giving Edge Over INDI Alliance

Newly elected Chandigarh mayor, Manoj Sonkar resigned from the post on Sunday (18 February) ahead of the Supreme Court hearing in the case over allegations of vote tampering.

While BJP's Sonkar resigned on "moral grounds", the good news is that three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillors joined the party, giving BJP an edge when the fresh elections are conducted.

The three AAP councillors are Neha Musawat, Poonam Devi and Gurcharan Kala, who joined the BJP in Delhi in the presence of senior party leaders. Musawat was dissatisfied for not being nominated a mayoral candidate.

Coming back to the elections held on 30 January, BJP emerged victorious against the Congress-AAP alliance. Sonkar had bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the INDI Alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar.

Eight votes were rejected in the process as invalid, which led to AAP's Kumar filing a petition alleging fraud in BJP’s win and forgery in the rejection of the eight votes.

The Supreme Court heard the matter on 5 February and noted that scribbling on votes, which led to their rejection, was a "mockery of democracy" and "murder of democracy."

According to Indian Express, there are apprehensions of the Supreme Court making the adverse remarks in today's hearing, hence Sonkar was asked to resign immediately by senior BJP leaders.

"AAP and Congress were vitiating the atmosphere by levelling brless allegations of tampering the votes. Now when fresh polls will be held, people will get to know who takes the majority," Chandigarh BJP chief Jatinder Malhotra said.

With three new joinees, the BJP now has 17 councillors, up from 14, while the AAP-Congress strength is also 17. However, the BJP has additional votes of BJP MP Kirron Kher and the lone SAD councillor taking the number of votes to 19.