The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Councillor Kuldeep Kumar on Thursday filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the Supreme Court against Punjab and Haryana High Court’s refusal to grant an immediate stay on the Chandigarh Mayor election result in which a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate was declared as Mayor of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation.
Manoj Sonkar the Mayor candidate from BJP was elected as the Mayor on Tuesday after winning 16 votes against the 12 votes received by the Congress-AAP candidate Kuldeep Kumar.
While counting eight votes were rejected as invalid by the presiding officer Anil Masih. Kumar moved the Punjab and Haryana high court alleging fraud by BJP. The INDIA bloc candidate alleged that the rejection of the eight votes was by done by forgery. The AAP councilor sought fresh elections under the supervision of a retired High Court judge.
The high court on Wednesday refused to stay the results and issued notice. The court further listed the matter for hearing after three weeks on February 26.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann had said on Wednesday that the party will move the apex court for an early hearing in the matter, the PTI reported.
His statement came hours after the Punjab and Haryana High Court fused to grant any interim relief on the AAP's petition for setting aside Tuesday's mayoral election and seeking fresh mayoral polls.
“The video is clear. What report does Chandigarh Administration have to give in three weeks,” Mann said while addressing the media.
The row over the elections errupted after AAP and Congress who jointly contested the Mayoral elections under the INDIA bloc accused the presiding officer Anil Masih of refusing to allow the nominees of parties to monitor the counting of votes.
They have also alleged that videos from the election clearly reveal that the Masih shuffled the votes from one basket to another and tampered with ballot papers.