"Black day for democracy...": Arvind Kejriwal on Chandigarh Mayor election

New Delhi [India], January 30 (ANI): Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) indulged in "hooliganism" during the Chandigarh mayoral elections and called the polls a "black day for democracy."
Addressing a press conference, Delhi CM voiced concerns about the integrity of the democratic process and said the entire country saw what happened in the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
"Gandhiji was assassinated on this date and after 76 years, they (BJP) have murdered the democracy... It is a black day for democracy. They did hooliganism openly and it is captured on camera. The whole country is seeing how they stole votes... Anyone can win or lose elections, the country should not lose... The issue is that they have won the Chandigarh Mayoral elections with open fraud," Kejriwal said.
AAP chief further questioned what kind of elections were held today.
"The presiding officer (appointed by BJP), did not let any agent participate in the counting (of the mayoral election's votes) and continued the counting on his own. He declared some of our votes invalid and some as valid, which can clearly be seen in the video. Out of 36, they (BJP) had 16 votes, and we (AAP-Congress) had 20. From those 20, they declared 8 invalid, meaning 25 per cent of votes were declared invalid. What kind of election is this?" he added.
He further said that the BJP is targeting opposition leaders, breaking parties and toppling governments.
"This time under INDIA Alliance, Congress and AAP came together... Their (BJP) intention had been maligned since the beginning... They tried to buy ours and Congress' councillors. They tried to scare them like they do all over the country... But fortunately, not even one councillor broke down," AAP chief said.
This came after the BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls, winning all three posts including of mayor, and defeating the Congress-AAP alliance.
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
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. (ANI)