The Supreme Court has ordered the appointment of a retired judge as an observer for the Chandigarh mayor election. The court gave this decision while hearing on Friday. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and current mayor Kuldeep Kumar had filed a petition demanding transparency in the election process.
He demanded voting by raising hands and said that in the last mayor election, the election officer had rigged and made the BJP win.
Fari Sofat, Kuldeep Singh’s lawyer, said that the apex court has fixed January 27, 2025 as the date for the next hearing of the case. Voting for the mayor election will be held on January 30. Tomorrow is the last day of the nomination process.
AAP had gone to the High Court citing the proposal
Earlier this matter had reached the Punjab and Haryana High Court. In the High Court, he had told that a resolution was passed in the Municipal Corporation on October 29 that the election of the mayor would be held by raising hands. The court said that the administration should reconsider it, because the proposal has been passed. The administration has not yet approved it. After this he reached the Supreme Court.
The second challenge he gave was regarding holding elections on 24 January. Then the court had ordered to conduct elections by 29 January.
BJP has declared candidates
BJP has nominated Harpreet Kaur Babla for the post of Mayor, while the names of Senior Deputy Mayor Bimla Dubey and Lakhbir Singh Billu have been decided for Deputy Mayor. Congress and Aam Aadmi Party are contesting the elections together. The post of Mayor will be given to AAP and the post of Senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be given to Congress. 6 women councilors of AAP have presented their claim for the post of Mayor.
Prem Lata, Jaswinder Kaur and Anju Katyal are leading in the race for the ticket, while Jasbir Singh Bunty for the post of Senior Deputy Mayor and Taruna Mehta for the post of Deputy Mayor have been declared from Congress.
In the last mayor election, BJP won due to the malpractice of the election officer
Earlier, the mayor election was held in 2023. Then AAP-Congress had majority. Then the election officer Anil Masih, by making a mistake, declared the votes of 8 councillors of AAP-Congress invalid. Due to which AAP’s mayor candidate Kuldeep Kumar lost the election. Then BJP’s Manoj Sonkar, who got 16 votes including 13 councillors of BJP, MP and Akali Dal, was declared the winner.
AAP went to the Supreme Court against this. When the court saw the CCTV footage of the time of election, election officer Anil Masih was found marking the votes of AAP-Congress councillors. The court accepted that Masih spoiled the votes intentionally. After this, the Supreme Court asked for re-counting of votes, in which orders were also given to count the votes declared invalid. After this, AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar became the mayor.
The political game of Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has surprised everyone. On one hand, Congress and AAP are fighting the assembly elections against each other in Delhi. Their leaders are cursing each other. At the same time, 260 KM away, both are seen together in the mayor election of Chandigarh.
