Huge win for BJP! Manoj Sonkar wins Chandigarh mayor election against AAP-Congress alliance candidate

BJP leader Manoj Sonkar won the Chandigarh mayor elections, defeating AAP"s Kuldeep Kumar marking the first loss of the newly formed Opposition coalition of Congress and AAP candidate against BJP

NewsBharati    30-Jan-2024 17:41:14 PM
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Chandigarh, Jan 30: In a huge victory for the BJP, Manoj Sonkar won the Chandigarh mayoral elections today, defeating the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Kuldeep Kumar. The BJP was up against an alliance candidate between the Congress and AAP, in the first contest between the newly formed Opposition coalition and the NDA.
  
Manoj Sonkar Chandigarh mayor elections

Manoj Sonkar won the mayoral polls with 16 votes against the 12 votes bagged by the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Tita. 8 votes were declared invalid, which led Opposition leaders to raise allegations of rigging.
 

Why these polls were significant?


The polls are considered significant as it is the maiden electoral test of the Opposition’s INDIA alliance against the BJP and also saw the first alliance between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress.

BJP chief JP Nadda said the BJP victory showed that the INDIA bloc's arithmetic and chemistry weren't working. "That the INDI alliance fought their first electoral battle and still lost to BJP shows that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry," he wrote on X.
 
 

Punjab BJP leader Jaiveer Shergill called the AAP-Congress alliance a thugbandhan (an alliance of thugs). "BJP's victory in the election is a victory of democracy and the defeat of the 'thugbandhan' (an alliance of thugs) of Congress and AAP. BJP's victory is the victory of truth over lies, of the politics of service to the nation over the politics of corruption," said BJP leader.
 

AAP cries foul


AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal said the BJP murdered democracy. "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. 25% votes in Chandigarh mayor polls declared invalid; what kind of election was this. They will stoop to any low to win," he said at a press conference.
 

BJP reacts


Reacting to Arvind Kejriwal's accusation that the BJP cheated to secure the victory, Sonkar said levelling allegations is the alliance's main job. "Levelling allegations is their (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. 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 a press conference, we are not wrong. We have won the election," he said.
 
 

The election, initially scheduled to be held on January 18, was postponed to February 6 after the presiding officer took ill. After the Opposition councillors moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court over the postponement, the court directed that the polls be held on January 30.
BJP AAP Congress Manoj Sonkar AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar