News Brief
Chandigarh Mayor Polls: Here's Everything You Need To Know About AAP Moving Supreme Court Against Election Results
BJP mayoral candidate Manoj Sonkar. (HT photo)
In the recently concluded Chandigarh mayor elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious with councillor Manoj Sonkar elected as the new mayor.
Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Raghav Chadha on Tuesday (30 January) questioned the Chandigarh mayoral poll process and said they will approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking fresh elections.
Chadha claimed that the poll process was not only "unconstitutional and illegal" but also an act of "deshdroh" (treason), as he accused the BJP of "orchestrating" it after sensing its defeat in the election.
It's important to note that BJP's Manoj Sonkar had bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar.
Eight votes were rejected in the process as invalid, which lead to the dispute.
The petition alleged that in complete departure of the practice and rules, the Presiding Officer Anil Masih refused to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.
While considering the petition, the high court on Wednesday (31 January) only issued notice and listed the matter for further hearing after three weeks.
With regard to the prayer for stay on the results, the division bench of Justice Sudhir Singh and Justice Harsh Bunger of the High Court only recorded the submissions of counsel representing the petitioner and respondents.
In response to this AAP Councillor Kuldeep Kumar moved the Supreme Court against Punjab and Haryana High Court’s refusal to grant an immediate stay on election results.
