Chandigarh Mayor-elect Manoj Sonkar of the BJP resigned a night before the Supreme Court hearing on the mayor elections case on 19 Feb. AAP and INC fought the election as an alliance and alleged that the BJP hijacked the elections through wrong counting of votes by the election commissioner Anil Masih (SDW Vol. 2 Issue 6, Story 1). The court cross-examined Masih and declared the result invalid. In the normal course, the court would have announced a re-election upon examination of actual ballot papers. While that decision was pending, BJP got three AAP councilors to defect and join their party. Concerned about horse trading, the court ordered the mayor be declared on the basis of already cast votes. The AAP plus INC alliance has 20/36 votes and the new mayor is Kuldeep Kumar Dhalor. Dhalor was to take charge 26 Feb but his swearing in was postponed because he was unavailable. On 27 Feb, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered the mayor to take oath on 28 Feb and document it through video recording.The Supreme Court’s decision to consider the mayor election invalid also voided the results for the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The Chandigarh administration has scheduled the elections for these posts on 4 Mar. On 25 Feb, ahead of the fresh election for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor, the BJP moved its councilors to Morni Hills on the outskirts of Chandigarh to guard against reverse poaching by AAP and INC.
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