In a massive development, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday won the much-awaited Chandigarh Mayoral Elections 2024 defeating I.N.D.I.A alliance (Congress-AAP unity) for the first time. The Chandigarh Mayoral Election was called the first electoral fight between the BJP and the newly formed INDIA alliance. It was expected that the INDIA alliance would easily seal the victory since the numbers were in their favor, however, BJP proved all odds wrong on Tuesday.
To be precise, BJP won the Chandigarh mayoral elections with 16 votes to its mayoral candidate Manoj Sonkar. The Congress Mayor candidate got 12 votes. 8 votes were declared invalid. It means BJP councilor Manoj Sonkar has become the new Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. He defeated AAP-Congress's I.N.D.I.A candidate Kuldeep Tita by 4 votes. MP and 35 councilors cast their votes for the mayor election. Out of which BJP's Manoj got 16 votes and the AAP-Congress candidate got 12 votes, while 8 votes were not included in the counting. However, whether it was invalid or there was some other reason is not yet known.
Before the counting seemed like this- Total Votes = 36, AAP (13) + CONG (07) = 20 Votes, BJP = 15 Votes, Akali Dal = 1 Vote. However, the dynamics changed after 8 votes were declared invalid.
Notably, the AAP and Congress councilors alleged that election officer Anil Masih was tampering with the ballot paper. Anil Masih said that he was just signing them. Councilors of both parties created a ruckus regarding this.
(NOTE: THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY)