Chandigarh mayoral polls: SC talks tough to returning officer; seeks entire ballot papers and video recordings
The Hindu
The Supreme Court said that it will peruse ballot papers and the entire video recording for the Chandigarh mayoral polls.
The Supreme Court ordered producing ballot papers and the entire video recording for the Chandigarh mayoral polls. It called for ballot papers to be produced before it by 2 p.m. on February 20. The court asked Registrar General Punjab and Haryana High Court to depute a judicial officer, who will be provided with security.
On being asked why he put why he put ‘X’ marks on ballot papers, Returning Officer Anil Masih said he had found them to be ‘defaced’.
The top court said it is “deeply concerned with the horsetrading taking place” and refused to accept submission that the plea be heard on some other day.
The Supreme Court gave the BJP victory at Chandigarh mayoral elections a jolt, threatening to order fresh elections after a video played in the open courtroom on Monday showed the Returning Officer “obviously defacing” ballot papers, while taking stealthy glances at the camera overhead like a “fugitive”.
Ahead of the SC hearing, city’s Mayor Manoj Sonkar had resigned from his post on Sunday.
Last month, BJP candidate Mr. Sonkar won the post of Mayor by securing 16 votes in the 35-member MC House. Eight votes were declared invalid. The Congress and the AAP members created a ruckus in the House alleging poll rigging. The Congress and the AAP, both INDIA bloc partners, had decided to jointly contest the mayoral elections against the BJP. As per the alliance, the Congress contested the posts of senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor while the AAP fought for the Mayor post.
Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar, after losing the Mayor poll, approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking to set aside the process of the election of the Mayor, alleging complete fraud and forgery in the process of elections. The Punjab and Haryana High Court had refused to grant the AAP any interim relief, following which Mr. Kumar approached the Supreme Court.
Political economist Parakala Prabhakar has described the exit poll results as “fudged figures”, saying that those would benefit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) only. “False predictions were given with the sole objective of helping the NDA in rigging during the counting,” alleged Mr. Prabhakar, after releasing a book titled ‘Avineeti Chakravarthi Narendra Modi’ penned by former Minister Vadde Shobanadreeswara Rao, here, on June 2 (Sunday).