On Tuesday, BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was elected Mayor after winning 16 of the 36 votes, while APP’s Kuldeep Kumar got 12 votes and 8 votes were declared invalid (all belonging to the opposition group).
This triggered protests by opposition Congress and APP councilors. They accused the presiding officer, Anil Masih, a member of BJP’s minority cell, of manipulating ballots during the counting process.
AAP’s allegation
On Tuesday at the Assembly Hall of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (MC), the presiding officer Anil Masih declared eight votes of Congress and AAP councilors invalid.
AAP-Congress joint mayor candidate Kuldeep Kumar said, “It is shocking that unlike in the past, no representative from the ruling BJP and opposition group was called by the presiding officer to see the counting and check the ballot papers. We will move the court.” He added that 8 votes were deliberately made invalid.
Additionally, Congress councilor Gurbaz Rawat said that no reason was given for invalidation votes by the presiding officer and accused him of marking the ballot papers with a pen to make them invalid.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also accused the BJP of dishonesty and cheating in the election process by drawing a parallel with former United States President Donald Trump. “If these people can stoop to this level in a mayoral poll, they can go to any extent in the national elections,” He said in a post on X. 
AAP, pointing to footage purportedly showing Anil Masih making marks on some ballots, demanded strict action and a criminal case against him.
AAP moved to the High Court
By Tuesday afternoon, AAP requested an urgent hearing in the High Court with Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh. Singh submitted that eight votes were declared invalid without any reason given and demanded a seal of the election record. However, the court did not agree to a hearing on Tuesday and listed it for Today.
Municipal authorities and the presiding officer have not made any clarification yet.
