"This was a broad daylight robbery": Saurabh Bhardwaj on Chandigarh mayoral polls

Chandigarh [India], January 30 : After a high-voltage drama around the Chandigarh mayoral elections, Delhi Minister and AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj on Tuesday alleged "robbery" by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and said that the party's victory in Chandigarh mayoral polls was a "blatant theft."
"This was a broad daylight robbery. In Chandigarh, there are 36 Councillor seats out of which 14 seats are BJPs and 13 seats are AAPs and 7 seats of Congress. Total AAP (13 + 7) has 20 seats. How come the party with 14 seats won the polls?" Bhardwaj told ANI on Tuesday.
AAP leader further said that there was no way that the BJP could have won the polls.
"BJP has been exposed again. The AAP-Congress alliance clearly had a majority. There was no question that the BJP could win this," he added.
The fresh scheduling of the elections, which AAP MP Raghav Chadha described as the first direct electoral contest between the BJP and the Opposition bloc--INDIA--happened on the order of the Punjab-Haryana High Court.
Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajinder Kumar was elected as Deputy Mayor, after AAP and Congress councillors refused to cast votes in the election of Deputy Mayor and Senior Deputy Mayor.
After a high-voltage drama around the Chandigarh mayoral elections, the BJP emerged victorious after the votes were cast and counted on Tuesday.
The Bharatiya Janta Party's (BJP) Manoj Sonkar won the Chandigarh mayoral elections on Tuesday, the first election battle against the INDIA bloc by defeating the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Kuldeep Kumar.
Meanwhile, BJP secured 16 votes for its mayor candidate Manoj Sonkar and Kuldeep Singh, the joint candidate of Congress and AAP was able to manage 12 votes. 8 votes were declared invalid.
After BJP's Manoj won the Chandigarh mayor election, a ruckus broke out in the House. Congress and AAP councillors accused the BJP of cheating and not following the due electoral process
Reacted to the allegations of AAP, newly-elected Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar said that levelling allegations is the AAP-Congress job.
"Wherever they don't have their way, they level allegations...Everything is on camera. But when they couldn't digest their defeat, they created this atmosphere and started blaming us," Sonkar said.
He further alleged that AAP-Congress leaders started tearing ballot papers and jostling people around after the name of the Mayor was announced.
"They started tearing ballot papers and jostling people around after the name of the Mayor was announced...When they can't run a small city, how can they run a state?...Let them do press conference, we are not wrong. We have won the election," he added.
The polls were conducted today after the presiding officer fell ill on the initial date, January 8 of holding the polls.
The fresh scheduling of the elections, which AAP MP Raghav Chadha described as the first direct electoral contest between the BJP and the Opposition bloc--INDIA--happened on the order of the Punjab-Haryana High Court.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 24, 2024, announced the decision to hold the Chandigarh Mayoral Elections on January 30 and also vested the responsibility for security in the Chandigarh Police.
Advocate General Punjab, Gurminder Singh, said earlier, "The Punjab Haryana High Court made its decision regarding the Chandigarh mayoral elections public. The court granted permission to hold the Chandigarh Mayoral polls on January 30 at 10.00 am. The Chandigarh Police has been entrusted with full responsibility for security."
After the mayoral polls were rescheduled on account of the sickness of the presiding officer, Congress and AAP leaders alleged that the BJP deliberately delayed the polls as it sensed defeat.
In what is the first instance of the Congress and AAP coming together for an electoral contest since the formation of the Opposition bloc--INDIA, the two parties threw their combined weight behind the joint Opposition candidate.
As part of the deal between the two parties, the AAP fielded a candidate for the mayoral post while the Congress put up nominees for the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.