AAP-Congress alliance candidate moves Punjab and Haryana High Court against Chandigarh Mayor election

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress Party’s Joint Candidate Kuldeep Kumar has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking setting aside of the election held for the Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation due to alleged fraud and forgery..The Court today allowed mentioning of the case and ordered its listing on Wednesday. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s Manoj Sonkar was declared elected as the Mayor on Tuesday after he bagged 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate. Eight votes were rejected in the process as invalid. .In the petition before the High Court, it was alleged that in complete departure of the practice and rules, the Presiding Officer refused to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.“The Presiding Officer in most flimsy manner addressed to the House that he does not want any assistance from the members nominated by the parties contesting the election and he will count the vote himself. The voices were raised by the Aam Admi Party and Congress but their requests were not heeded, but surprisingly the Deputy Commissioner, Respondent No.2 and the Prescribed Authority, who was also in the same capacity in the last year’s election remained mum,” the petition said..The plea further stated that there were three baskets in front of the Presiding Officer - two for the candidates of the AAP-Congress alliance and BJP and one for invalid votes.As per the plea, videos from the election reveal that the Presiding Officer shuffled the votes from one basket to another “only with a view to create a confusion during which he completely compromised the election process by forgery and tampering.”.The petition further alleged that the Presiding Officer against all the rules and regulations announced the result that eight votes had been declared invalid but “did not utter a single word for the invalidity of the votes and the party to whom these invalid votes were polled”It was argued in the petition that Presiding Officer’s actions are nothing but murder of democracy and democratic system for elections. The petition further accused the officers responsible for holding the elections to be hand in glove with the BJP. "That the majority of the Officers, who were be responsible for conducting the election, including the Presiding Officer and the Secretary, Municipal Corporation belong to Haryana Cadre of Officers, where the Govt. of BJP is in power and they are under the party influence."The petition has, therefore, sought quashing of today's elections and to conduct fresh elections in a free and fair manner. .Advocates Ramanpreet Singh Bara, KS Kharbanda and Ferry Sofat are representing petitioner Kuldeep Kumar