AAP, Congress Will Go To Supreme Court Over Mayor Polls: Bhagwant Mann

Chandigarh:

A day after the high drama witnessed in the Chandigarh Mayoral poll results, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Wednesday said that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress will move to the Supreme Court.

He also called the Chandigarh Mayoral poll “an example of murder of democracy.”

“Whatever happened yesterday is an example of the murder of democracy. The budget is coming tomorrow, let’s see what Punjab gets. Aam Aadmi Party Punjab and Congress will move to the Supreme Court against the mayoral election”, CM Mann said.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim Union Budget on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the members of the Youth Congress staged a protest outside the Mayor’s office in Chandigarh on Wednesday.

There was a rift between the protestors and police at the spot.

Youth Congress workers were heard chanting the slogan ‘Bhrastachar band karo’ (Stop the corruption).

However, the police detained the protestors after a while.

A hearing was also held today in the Punjab Haryana High Court regarding tampering with the results of the Chandigarh Mayor election. In the Punjab Haryana High Court, Kuldeep Kumar, who was the mayoral candidate from the AAP and Congress, was being represented by Advocate General of Punjab Gurminder Gary. Advocate Anil Mehta was representing Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

After hearing this entire matter, Punjab Haryana High Court gave three weeks’ time to Chandigarh Municipal Corporation and Chandigarh Administration to file their reply in this matter. Now the next hearing of this matter will be on February 26.

The BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was declared the Mayor of Chandigarh on Tuesday after he won the mayoral polls with 16 votes against the 12 votes bagged by Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Tita. Eight votes were declared invalid.

Eight votes, which were declared invalid in the Chandigarh Mayoral polls, have led opposition leaders to raise allegations of rigging with Congress and AAP, attacking the BJP-led central government over the issue.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)