Supreme Court declares AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar as the new Mayor of Chandigarh

AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar as the new Mayor.

The Supreme Court overturned the Chandigarh mayoral election results on Tuesday, naming AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar as the new Mayor, following the dismissal of the BJP candidate’s election by the Returning Officer.

The court found Kuldeep Kumar, the AAP-Congress alliance candidate, to be the rightful winner. It also mandated the commencement of legal action against the returning officer, Anil Masih, under Section 340 of the Criminal Procedure Code for manipulating the ballots.

This is the first and a very big win for the INDIA alliance. We have snatched away this victory from them (BJP). They had stolen this election but we did not concede, we kept on struggling and emerged victorious eventually. I think this has happened for the first time in India’s history. We thank the Supreme Court. The situation in the country is such that a dictatorship is going on. Democracy is being trampled. All institutions are being trampled. At such a time, this decision of the Supreme Court holds a lot of significance for democracy…This is the major victory of the INDIA Alliance – the first and massive…We have snatched away victory from them. They had ‘stolen’ the election, the votes. But we fought till the end and ultimately won…Those who say that BJP can’t be defeated – BJP can be defeated with unity, with good planning and strategy and hard work. These results prove the same

Arvind Kejriwal

This decision came after a thorough examination of the ballot papers and the assessment of video evidence presented in court. In the initial count on January 30, BJP’s Manoj Sonkar led with 16 votes to Kuldeep Kumar’s 12, after eight votes were disqualified in the election for the Mayor of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.

Setting aside the election of the BJP candidate as declared by the Returning Officer, the Supreme Court on Tuesday declared AAP councillor Kuldeep Kumar as new Mayor of Chandigarh.