SC Restores AAP Mayor in Chandigarh, BJP Takes a Nosedive

The Supreme Court set aside the Chandigarh Mayoral poll results on Tuesday, and declared Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress’ joint candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the winner. The Apex Court has also ordered criminal proceedings against the returning officer Anil Masih for tampering the ballot papers during the counting of votes on January 30.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Manoj Sonkar had been declared winner after securing 16 votes. These included the vote of a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) member and that of the local Member of Parliament Kirron Kher.

Kumar had secured 12 votes with eight being declared invalid. These eight votes were declared to be validly polled in favour of Kumar by the Supreme Court.

But there are many questions that have been left unanswered. The biggest one is whether the BJP has lost the plot in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, in the face of a political and ethical embarrassment?

Experts say that the developments before the Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday need an in depth analysis. The three AAP councillors had reportedly joined the BJP on Sunday. They claimed to have been ‘inspired’ by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s work.

This was an instant numerical advantage to the BJP had a repoll been ordered. How these numbers work in the days to come remains to be seen.

Sonkar resigned as Chandigarh Mayor on Sunday reportedly on ‘moral grounds’, ahead of the Supreme Court hearing. Masih who was a member of the BJP’s minority cell was removed from the list of its office bearers last week.

“Ethically it is a setback to the BJP but who bothers about this at present. Nothing was said on the posts of the Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor to which the BJP candidates were elected after the Congress and AAP councillors had refrained from voting.

“The biggest question is that was it only the returning officer who was responsible? Who were the people working behind the scene? What about the role of the Municipal Commissioner and Deputy Commissioner?

“Even that the Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher was allowed to vote as an ex-officio member needs to be scrutinised. With three AAP members having jumped over to the BJP, all that has to be done is to bring about a no confidence motion two months down the line. The functioning of the Mayor can be also stonewalled. It is just that the AAP and the Congress have something to claim,” senior political observer Hamir Singh who is based in Chandigarh said.

Chandigarh has a unique administrative set up. While it is the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, it is administered as a Union Territory under the Centre.

Another Chandigarh based observer, Professor Manjit Singh said, “The Court should have termed the crossover by the three AAP councillors as illegal. A lot of questions surely remain unanswered.”

Even the prelude to the contentious Mayoral election on January 30 had been equally intriguing.”

The polls to the post of the Mayor, Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor that were earlier scheduled to be held on January 18 were postponed to February 6 by the administration after Masih had reported sick. This was followed by protests by the Congress and the AAP. Later it was the Punjab and Haryana High Court that had ordered the elections to be held on January 30.

The elections to these three posts are held every year during the five-year term of the House. The Congress had abstained from voting during the last two years and this had resulted in the BJP capturing the posts. The SAD candidate too had boycotted the previous two elections to these posts.

After the Supreme Court decision senior Congress leader K. C. Venugopal said in a tweet, “The Hon’ble Supreme Court’s decision on the farcical election for the Chandigarh Mayor will go a long way to save Indian democracy.

“The entire election process was a complete farce, which has been duly exposed with this historic verdict! For 4 months, we have been frequently seeking time from the Election Commission to discuss the issue of complete VVPAT counting, but it has not found any time for us so far. We hope the ECI moves swiftly and takes steps that will improve the people’s faith in the democratic process - not dent it.”

The Congress party tweeted, “Who is the Messiah of Anil Masih? You know the answer. That is why it is being said – do not remain silent, do not remain afraid. Join us in the fight to save democracy.”

Meanwhile, AAP’s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted, “Thank you SC for saving democracy in these difficult times!”

In another tweet he said, “Kuldeep Kumar is a boy from a poor family. On behalf of the I.N.D.I.A. alliance, many congratulations on becoming the Mayor of Chandigarh. This became possible only because of Indian democracy and the Honourable Supreme Court. We have to preserve the impartiality of our democracy and autonomous institutions at any cost.”

His counterpart in Punjab Bhagwant Mann, in his initial reaction said, “At last truth prevailed... We welcome the decision of the Supreme Court regarding the Mayor election in Chandigarh... CJI declared AAP's Kuldeep Kumar as Mayor, upholding the 8 votes rejected by the Presiding Officer... They have got a befitting reply to the hooliganism openly committed by BJP... Many congratulations to the people of Chandigarh on this big victory of democracy...”

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader from Chandigarh Pawan Kumar Bansal while welcoming the judgement said, “The Supreme Court has saved democracy from being murdered.” He said that it is a big setback for the BJP that stands exposed because of the timely intervention of the Supreme Court.

He questioned, “If the BJP can do this for a corporation election what can they not do where the larger question of power arises?”

The fact that the Supreme Court verdict is an embarrassment for the BJP can b gauged from the tweet posted by the party’s national president Jagat Prakash Nadda on January 30 that read, “Congratulations to @BJP4Chandigarh Unit for winning the Mayor election. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji, UTs have witnessed record development. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle and still lost to BJP shows that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry.”

It is evident that the opposition parties will play up the BJP’s Chandigarh Mayoral poll embarrassment in a big way in the run up to the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections that are due soon. The tone for the same is being set through the social media that has emerged as a major tool for politicking.