Chandigarh mayoral polls: AAP takes out candle march against BJP

Chandigarh: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday evening took out a candle march in Maloya here against the alleged rigging in the recently held Chandigarh mayoral elections.

Led by AAP's Chandigarh unit co-in-charge Sunny Ahluwalia, the protesters accused the BJP of 'stealing' votes in the mayoral elections.

"We are fighting to save our democracy and fair elections are the responsibility of every political party but the BJP is working to eradicate the whole election process," Ahluwalia alleged.

He added that the people of the country would never tolerate a 'dictatorial' party like the BJP, which will face defeat in the upcoming general elections.

Ahluwalia said despite presiding officer Anil Masih being caught 'tampering' with ballot papers in a video, no action has been taken against him.

The Congress and AAP have been holding protests against the alleged rigging in the mayoral polls for the past several days.

The BJP on January 30 swept the Chandigarh mayoral polls against the Congress-AAP alliance.

Manoj Sonkar of the BJP defeated the AAP's Kuldeep Kumar for the mayor's post, polling 16 votes against his rival's 12. Eight votes were declared invalid.

The opposition councillors alleged that the presiding officer had tampered with the ballot papers, a charge rubbished by the BJP.

Appalled by the alleged defacing of ballot papers, the Supreme Court on Monday said it amounted to a mockery of democracy and ordered that the ballots and the video of the electoral proceedings be preserved.

Taking note of an AAP councillor's plea alleging wrongdoing during the polls, the court issued notices to the Chandigarh authorities, including the civic body.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra expressed annoyance after watching the video of the electoral proceedings and said that, prima facie, the returning officer was defacing the ballot papers.