Chandigarh mayoral polls: BJP's Rajinder Kumar elected deputy mayor

Chandigarh [India], January 30 (ANI): Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajinder Kumar was elected as Deputy Mayor, after AAP and Congress councillors refused to cast votes in the election of Deputy Mayor and Senior Deputy Mayor.
After a high-voltage drama around the Chandigarh mayoral elections, the BJP emerged victorious after the votes were cast and counted on Tuesday.
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 fresh scheduling of the elections, which AAP MP Raghav Chadha described as the first direct electoral contest between the BJP and the Opposition bloc--INDIA--happened on the order of the Punjab-Haryana High Court.
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)