Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday slammed the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) over the rigging of the Chandigarh mayoral polls. Speaking in the assembly, Kejriwal said that similar incidents happened during the Pakistan national elections. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said the BJP made the losing person win by a huge margin by rigging the ballots.
Arvind Kejriwal's statement came a day after the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the Chandigarh Mayoral poll case in the favour of the AAP. Welcoming the Supreme Court judgement, Kejriwal yesterday said that the verdict is a major victory for the INDIA bloc, adding that the BJP can be defeated with proper planning and strategy. Kejriwal termed the judgement as the victory of democracy.
The Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra annulled the ruling made by Returning Officer Anil Masih, who proclaimed BJP candidate Manoj Kumar Sonkar as Chandigarh Mayor last month. The Supreme Court's decision was prompted by the discovery that the Returning Officer intentionally invalidated/defaced eight ballots that were cast in favor of Kuldeep Kumar, the joint candidate of AAP-Congress.
On Monday, Masih informed the bench that he had marked the ballot papers because they were already defaced, intending to prevent them from being mistakenly mixed with other ballots. Despite attempting to justify his position on Tuesday, the court remained unconvinced. The CJI checked the ballots himself and noted that they were valid and ruled in favour of Kuldeep Kumar, declaring him the winner of the mayoral polls. The top court also said that the returning officer must be prosecuted for his wrongdoings.
Leaders from opposition parties welcomed the verdict. The decision gave a boost to the INDIA bloc parties who were standing on a shaky ground over indecisiveness of the seat-sharing ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
