Chandigarh:

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and senior celebration chief Raghav Chadha hit out on the BJP Tuesday afternoon, accusing the celebration of “treason (desh droh)” and “dishonesty” after it eased to victory within the Chandigarh mayoral election held earlier at this time.

Mr Kejriwal’s AAP allied with the Congress for this civic ballot – pitched as the primary actual electoral take a look at of the INDIA bloc forward of a Lok Sabha election in lower than three months’ time – however the alliance didn’t ship. The BJP’s Manoj Sonkar gained the Mayor’s seat with 16 votes within the 35+1-member municipal physique. The AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar ought to have obtained 20 – together with eight from the Congress – however obtained solely 12. Eight votes have been declared “invalid” triggering howls of protest from the 2 events.

“The style through which dishonesty has been executed in broad daylight within the Chandigarh mayor elections is extraordinarily worrying. If these individuals can stoop so low in a mayor’s election, then they will go to any extent within the nation’s elections. That is very worrying…” Mr Kejriwal posted on X.

चंडीगढ़ मेयर चुनाव में दिन दहाड़े जिस तरह से बेईमानी की गई है, वो बेहद चिंताजनक है। यदि एक मेयर चुनाव में ये लोग इतना गिर सकते हैं तो देश के चुनाव में तो ये किसी भी हद तक जा सकते हैं। ये बेहद चिंताजनक है।

— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 30, 2024

Mr Chadha, addressing a press convention after the outcomes have been declared, identified that when a vote is asserted “invalid”, the presiding officer needed to present the vote to brokers of all events.,

“However at this time this did not occur… neither the election agent nor the deputy commissioner was proven the poll paper earlier than declaring it invalid. If they will do that for mayoral polls, think about what they will do for Lok Sabha polls,” Mr Chadha mentioned.

An AAP councillor, Prellata, instructed information company ANI, “We are going to strategy the Excessive Courtroom. At present, the BJP gained by deceit. The poll was snatched from my hand. How can eight votes be invalid?”

She additionally declared that BJP Chandigarh Lok Sabha MP Kirron Kher “was repeatedly signalling…”

The AAP has accused the presiding officer, Anil Masih, of utilizing his pen on poll papers solid by some councillors, thereby intentionally cancelling, or invalidating, their votes.

The BJP has responded with a message of congratulations for its Chandigarh unit.

Congratulations to @BJP4Chandigarh Unit for successful the Mayor election. Underneath the management of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji, UTs have witnessed document growth. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle and nonetheless misplaced to BJP reveals that neither their…

— Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) January 30, 2024

Social gathering boss JP Nadda posted, “Underneath the management of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, union territories have witnessed document growth. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle, and nonetheless misplaced to BJP, reveals neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry.”

The Chandigarh mayoral election was to have been the landmark first win for the INDIA bloc, of which the AAP and Congress are key members. It was additionally supposed to point a cheerful decision of seat-sharing squabbles between INDIA members forward of comparable talks for the Lok Sabha election.

READ | “Scorecard 1-0 In INDIA’s Favour”: AAP, Congress Tie Up For Key Polls

The AAP and Congress have been at odds over sharing Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and Delhi. Their respective state items are firmly towards an alliance; Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann mentioned final week the celebration would subject candidates for all 13 seats, and the Congress’ Partap Bajwa, talking solely to NDTV, shot again, “That is what cadre in Punjab wished from the start!”

READ | “Thank You, Mann Sahab”: Punjab Congress Chief To NDTV On AAP’s Solo Plan

In the end, although, the loss has additional weakened the opposition group, which is already on the sting of collapse after two of its largest members – Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool and Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) walked out. Within the latter case, Nitish’s swap to the BJP made issues worse.

NDTV is now out there on WhatsApp channels. Click on on the hyperlink to get all the most recent updates from NDTV in your chat.