New Delhi: The AAP-Congress alliance on Tuesday approached the Punjab-Haryana High Court with a petition challenging the outcome of the Chandigarh mayoral polls, in which BJP’s Manoj Sonkar defeated their joint candidate Kuldeep Kumar. The alliance alleged that the BJP resorted to cheating and invalidating eight votes in their favour, and demanded a recount. The court will hear the case on January 31.


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Ferry Sofat, the lawyer representing the AAP-Congress alliance, told ANI that they had filed a writ petition in the High Court on Tuesday, and mentioned it before the court for an urgent hearing. He said that the BJP had tried to hijack the election and kill democracy, and that they had submitted proper evidence to prove their claim. He said that the whole country had witnessed the cheating by the BJP, which was telecasted on television.


He also said that the High Court had earlier ordered that the Chandigarh mayoral polls should be conducted in a free and fair manner, and that the entire voting process should be videographed. He said that the BJP had violated the court’s order and manipulated the votes.


The Chandigarh mayoral polls were held on Tuesday, after they were postponed due to the illness of the presiding officer on January 8. The polls were seen as a crucial battle between the BJP and the Opposition bloc–INDIA–which had formed an alliance to challenge the BJP’s dominance in the city.


BJP’s Manoj Sonkar won the mayoral post by securing 16 votes, while AAP-Congress’s Kuldeep Kumar got 12 votes. The presiding officer declared eight votes invalid, claiming that they were marked with a different pen. The AAP-Congress alliance disputed this claim and protested against the result, but their plea for a recount was rejected.


The announcement of the result triggered a chaos in the House, as the AAP-Congress councillors accused the BJP of cheating and not following the due electoral process. They also tore the ballot papers and pushed the people around.


Manoj Sonkar, the newly elected mayor, dismissed the allegations of the AAP-Congress alliance, and said that they were sore losers who could not accept their defeat. He said that everything was on camera, and that they had won the election fair and square. He also said that the AAP-Congress alliance was incompetent to run a small city, let alone a state.


The Chandigarh mayoral polls were held as per the directions of the Punjab-Haryana High Court, which had also entrusted the Chandigarh Police with the security arrangements. The AAP MP Raghav Chadha had described the polls as the first direct electoral contest between the BJP and the INDIA bloc.