Chandigarh Mayor Manoj Sonkar, who emerged victorious in the mayoral elections in January, has stepped down from his position💫 following accusations of rigged polls.
His resignation comes a day before﷽ the scheduled Supreme Court hearing regardin♏g the alleged election tampering in the mayoral election.
He emerged victorious in the election, which was🔜 considered the initial political showdown against the INDIA bloc, by defeating Kuldeep Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on💛 January 30th.
The BJP garnered 16 votes, while Kuldeep Singh, the combined candidate of the Congress and AAP, secured 12 votes.
A controversial matter emerged when 8 votes were considered invalid, leading to tension between the BJP and the opposition.
Meanwhile BJP leader Arun Sood told P꧒TI that three AAP councillors from Chandigarh have j🐻oined BJP.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), in alliance with the Congress for the mayoral elections, approached the Supreme Court with a video allegedly depicting the presiding office✱r tampering with the ballot papers while counting votes.
The Supreme Court expresse🅘d shock at the reported tampering of ballot papers, stating that it 'murdered democracy'. As a result, the court mandated the preservation of both the ballots and the video recording of the electoral process.
CJI DY Chandrachud expressed, "Is this the behavio✱ur of a returning officer? He looks at the camera, and defaces the ballot obviously."
The Chandigarh administration postponed the mayoral election, which was initially set for January 18, to🐽 February 6 due to the presiding officer's illness. But t♍he high court ordered the administration to conduct the mayoral elections at 10 am on January 30th.
