“Amid Chandigarh Mayor’s Election Controversy, High Court Takes Notice of Plea Against Senior & Deputy Mayor Elections”

Amid the controversy surrounding the election of BJP’s Manoj Sonkar as Chandigarh’s Mayor, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued notices on a plea challenging the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor election conducted by him.

Sonkar’s election is pending challenge before the High Court and the Supreme Court is seized of a petition seeking a stay on his win. “This is a murder of democracy,” the Top Court had remarked on perusing the video of the vote count whereby Sonkar had emerged victorious on January 30.

The plea added that although the recently elected Mayor presided over further elections for the posts of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, his own elevation was illegal and invalid. The petitioners, who were contesting for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor, challenged the election of the Mayor and refused to hold elections under him, the plea added. It was submitted that when the protest of the petitioners and their associate councillors to conduct the elections in a fair and transparent manner fell on deaf ears of the prescribed authority, the petitioners and 18 other councillors (voters), who were demanding a recount of votes, walked out to protest against tampering of the ballot papers.

“Within minutes, the illegally elected Mayor conducted the elections of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor in their absence,” added the plea.

AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar approached the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the High Court to list his petition after three weeks without granting an immediate stay of the results. He moved the High Court alleging vote tampering in the Chandigarh Mayor Elections, where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Manoj Sonkar emerged victorious on January 30. The BJP candidate secured 16 votes against the 12 votes received by Kuldeep Kumar, the candidate backed by Congress and AAP. The presiding Officer rejected 8 votes as invalid.

He sought setting aside the impugned election result “as the same is a result of complete fraud and forgery laid upon the democratic process” and prayed for holding of fresh elections in a free and fair manner under the supervision of a retired High Court Judge

The matter is now deferred to February 26.