Chandigarh mayoral polls Black Day for country’s democracy, says Punjab CM Mann

PTI, Jan 30, 2024, 5:11 PM IST

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann (Source: PTI / File)

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday alleged “cheating” in the Chandigarh mayoral polls and said the day will be remembered as Black Day for country’s democracy.

His reaction came after the BJP swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls, winning all the three posts including of mayor, as it defeated the Congress-AAP alliance.

Mann said now his worry is that those who did the “cheating” can go to any extent in the parliamentary elections.

“This day will be remembered as Black Day for our country’s democracy,” Mann told a news conference here.

In the mayoral polls, BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar defeated the AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar for the mayor’s post, polling 16 votes against the 12 won by his rival. Eight votes were declared invalid.

In Chandigarh, councillors of the INDIA bloc parties — AAP and Congress — protested as soon as the results were announced.

The Punjab CM accused presiding officer Anil Masih of making some marks on the ballots during the counting, rendering them invalid and stated that the invalid ballots tilted the balance in the BJP candidate’s favour.

“This has come when we celebrated the Republic Day a few days ago. Now, in the polls, the Constitution has been trampled. I will say that the mayoral elections were looted by the BJP.

“Earlier, such examples have been there and they did so in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra…they do this in northeastern states,” Mann said.

He said before the start of the polls on Tuesday, a demonstration was given by the officials for the councillors.

“It was surprising that first, the presiding officer came late by nearly 40 minutes when polls were scheduled to take place. Later, when ballots were taken out (for mayor post), he first counted the ballots. In another round, he is seen signing those ballots,” said Mann, alleging there was tampering with the ballot papers in the elections.

He claimed this was visible in the video as the whole thing was being videographed.

Mann also said there were no agents of the AAP and Congress, who should have been allowed to be there.

“Anil Masih is an office-bearer of BJP’s minority wing, who was made presiding officer,” he said.

“I demand that ‘deshdroh’ (treason) case should be registered against the presiding officer. He has murdered democracy,” alleged Mann.