Soon after the Supreme Court of India ordered the recounting of eight “defaced” votes in the Chandigarh mayoral election on Tuesday, Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal stated that the court had delivered a historic verdict today.
“We all saw how it was obvious that 20 votes were for I.N.D.I.A bloc and 16 votes were cast for the BJP. How eight of the 20 votes were incorrectly declared invalid, and INDIA alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar was declared defeated. We thank the Supreme Court for this decision, which is critical at a time when the country’s institutions are being demolished,” the Delhi Chief Minister said during a press conference.
Kejriwal added, “This is the first and most significant victory for the I.N.D.I.A bloc. We took this victory away from them (BJP). They had stolen the election, but we refused to give up; we persevered and eventually won.”
In an X post (formerly Twitter), the Delhi Chief Minister thanked the Supreme Court for preserving “democracy in difficult times”.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann also praised the Supreme Court verdict, saying, “Finally, truth wins; we welcome the Supreme Court’s decision on the Chandigarh mayoral elections… CJI declared AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar mayor with 8 votes, which was rejected by the presiding officer, correct?”
During Tuesday’s hearing on the petition alleging vote tampering in the Chandigarh mayoral elections, the Supreme Court ruled that the eight ‘defaced’ votes should be considered valid and a recount should be conducted, according to ANI.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Chandigarh mayoral election on January 30, defeating the Aam Aadmi Party-Congress alliance candidate. The returning officer declared eight coalition partners’ votes invalid, resulting in allegations of ballot tampering.
The BJP’s Manoj Sonkar was elected mayor with 16 votes to his opponent’s 12, but he later resigned. Furthermore, three AAP councillors switched their allegiance to the BJP.