Chandigarh mayoral election: Congress-AAP alleges manipulation of ballot papers by Presiding Officer

In the recent Chandigarh mayoral election, a storm of controversy has erupted as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress alliance accused the presiding officer of manipulating ballot papers. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, Manoj Sonkar, emerged victorious with 16 votes against Kuldeep Kumar of the AAP-Congress alliance, who secured 12 votes. 

However, the legitimacy of the election was called into question when eight out of the total 36 votes were declared invalid.

The AAP's Raghav Chadha and party chief Arvind Kejriwal levelled serious allegations against the presiding officer. They claimed that the officer, without showing the ballot papers to the agents of the parties or providing reasons, invalidated votes and quickly left the premises with the ballot papers, leaving their fate unknown. 

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Kejriwal went on to describe the event as a "black day for democracy," emphasizing that the real loss was not about who became mayor but rather the potential damage to the country's democratic fabric.

The presiding officer, Anil Masih, responded to these accusations by stating that the AAP-Congress councillors had torn up the ballot papers after he announced the results. 

He recounted that during the voting process, some councillors expressed concerns over marks on the ballot papers, leading him to issue new ones. However, after the vote count, instead of verifying the validity of the ballots, AAP and some Congress councillors disrupted the process and destroyed the papers.

This electoral debacle followed an earlier postponement of the elections, which were initially scheduled for January 18 but were delayed due to the reported ill health of Masih. 

The incident has sparked protests from the AAP and Congress councillors in Chandigarh, with Kejriwal pointing out that a significant 25 per cent of the votes were deemed invalid. 

The dispute over the mayoral election has led to a heated exchange of claims between the involved parties, casting a shadow over the electoral process and raising questions about the integrity of democratic procedures.