Day Before SC Hearing on MC Election 2024, Chandigarh Mayor Resigns, 3 AAP councilors join BJP
Three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councilors joined the BJP.
Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar Resignation, MC Election 2024 News: A day before the Supreme Court was set to hear the petition over the conduct of Chandigarh Mayor Elections 2024, the Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar on Sunday resigned from his designation.
On Manoj Sonkar's resignation from the post of Chandigarh Mayor ahead of the Supreme Court's hearing on MC Election 2024, Chandigarh BJP President Jatinder Pal Malhotra said, "The mayor resigned yesterday afternoon. Aam Aadmi Party and Congress propaganda is out in the open. They are abusing each other in the rest of the country and they are allying in Chandigarh..."
"The Congress workers did not want a Congress Mayor, which is why they cross-voted... To stop AAP's propaganda, we have resigned... More workers and the councilors of the AAP and Congress will join the BJP soon..." said Malhotra.
Three AAP councilors join BJP
In a major development, three Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councilors joined the BJP a day before the hearing in the Supreme Court on allegations of rigging in the recent mayoral elections. Senior BJP leader Arun Sood said that three AAP councilors — Neha, Poonam, and Gurucharan — have joined the BJP in the presence of senior Kala Party leader Vinod Tawde.
With the change of the three councilors of 'AAP', it is certain that whenever there are new elections for the mayor, the party will tilt in favor of the BJP.
Before their joining, the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation had 14 councilors from the BJP and 13 from the AAP. Chandigarh MP Kiran Kher also has the right to vote in the Corporation House. While seven members were from the Congress party, Shiromani Akali Dal had only one member.
What is the whole matter?
On January 30, the BJP won the mayoral election in a blow to the AAP-Congress alliance and accused the election officer of tampering with the ballot papers as they had a majority on their side. Eight votes were declared invalid due to which the BJP got 16 votes while the AAP-Congress alliance bagged only 12 votes.
AAP-Congress approached the Supreme Court
The apex court had, on February 5, reprimanded the election officer who conducted the mayoral election. CJI said it was clear that he had tampered with the ballot papers and should be prosecuted. The court also said that the officer's act was "murder and mockery'' of democracy.
The court ordered to preserve the ballot papers and the video of the voting proceedings and asked the election officer to appear in person on February 19, the day of the next hearing of the case.