The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday, January 31, sought responses from the Chandigarh Administration and the Municipal Corporation Chandigarh on a petition filed by an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor alleging fraud in the polls held on Tuesday for the post of Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
The HC court has given three weeks time for the hearing. AAP and Congress have raised the demand to cancel the mayoral elections 2024. It was told in the petition that during the counting of votes, Presiding Officer Anil Masih had tampered with the ballot papers due to which their votes were declared invalid.
The petition calls for cancelling the process of the mayoral election, sealing the entire record related to the election, banning the Mayor from assuming office, getting an investigation done into the rigging in the entire election process and holding fresh elections under the supervision of a retired judge of the High Court. An appeal has been made to issue instructions.
Accusing the BJP of indulging in “hooliganism” in full public view, AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal had said that if people do not together stop this practice, it will be extremely “dangerous” for the nation.
“The AAP-Congress alliance had a clear majority and it was a straight election. Eight votes, or 25% of the total, were declared invalid. What kind of election was this? The mayoral polls result show there is something wrong and, on a large scale, they (BJP) can go to any extent in national polls,” he alleged.
Earlier, councillors from AAP and Congress created a ruckus in the House as the result for the mayor’s post was declared, and then boycotted the next phase – elections to pick the senior deputy mayor and the deputy mayor.