"Brazen, shameless capture of democratic system...": KC Venugopal on Chandigarh mayoral elections

New Delhi [India], January 30 (ANI): Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal launched an attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the Chandigarh mayor elections and called it a "brazen", "shameless capture" of the democratic system.
"Brazen, shameless capture of the democratic system. Declaring opposition votes invalid to win the Mayor Election in Chandigarh shows that it is second nature for the BJP to override the democratic mandate," Congress General Secretary posted on X on Tuesday.
He further said that BJP firstly abruptly postponed the elections, and then devised a way to capture it.
"This is a warning for all those who are deluded into thinking that the Modi-led BJP will allow democracy to function if they win in 2024," he added.
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 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)