In what comes as a shot in the arm for the Aam Aadmi Party, the Supreme Court, on Tuesday, declared its candidate Kuldeep Kumar to be the lawful winner in the Chandigarh mayoral elections held on January 30.
The BJP had won the Chandigarh mayoral polls defeating the AAP-Congress alliance candidate after the returning officer Anil Masih declared as invalid eight votes of the coalition partner. Manoj Sonkar of the BJP defeated Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival's 12 to bag the mayor's post. Sonkar, however, resigned a few days ago while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP.
The apex court bench, comprising Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, noted that the eight votes that the returning officer declared to be invalid were valid and that they were cast in favour of Kumar.
The court said 20 voters were cast in favour of Congress-AAP candidate and 16 in favour of the BJP candidate.
The court also ordered the prosecution of returning officers for misdemeanour. It directed the registrar judicial to issue a notice to him to show cause as to why steps should not be initiated against him.
Reacting to the development, AAP national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal thanked the Supreme Court for “saving democracy.”
“Thank you SC for saving democracy in these difficult times!,” he said in a tweet.
Delhi Minister and AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj hit out at the BJP after the SC order, saying the Supreme Court has exposed the Central government. "The biggest political party of the world, BJP was seen doing malpractices—on camera—in a mayoral election. This is a matter of concern for the country. What would the party be doing where there is no camera and no microphone? How can you trust the Central government at all those places? Supreme Court has exposed the Central government in this matter. Central government's topmost advocate represented the presiding officer before the Supreme Court."
