The Supreme Court has declared AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar as winner and Mayor of the union territory of Chandigarh. The apex court said that it is evident that the presiding officer made a deliberate attempt to deface 8 ballot papers. It has also ordered the prosecution of returning officer Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his misdemeanour after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud overturned the result of the Chandigarh mayoral poll in which the BJP candidate had emerged as an unlikely winner. The apex court made it clear that it was not quashing the entire electoral exercise and restricting itself to dealing with the wrong-doings in the counting process which led to invalidation of eight votes cast in Kumar’s favour.
The BJP had won the mayoral poll defeating the comfortably placed AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the returning officer declared as invalid eight votes of the coalition partners, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots. Manoj Sonkar of BJP had defeated Kuldeep Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival’s 12 to bag the mayor’s post. Sonkar, however, resigned subsequently, while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP.
(With inputs from PTI)
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Chandigarh mayoral polls: SC declares AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar as winner, Mayor
