In a brand new twist within the Chandigarh Municipal Company, Manoj Sonkar of the Bharatiya Janata Social gathering resigned as Chandigarh mayor on Sunday evening, a day earlier than the Supreme Courtroom is scheduled to listen to a plea alleging irregularities within the not too long ago held mayoral polls. This adopted the resignations of three Aam Aadmi Social gathering councillors – Punam Devi, Neha Musawat, and Gurcharan Kala – in Chandigarh who had gone incommunicado three days in the past and joined the BJP on Sunday evening, citing “unhappiness” with the Arvind Kejriwal-led celebration.
Manoj Sonkar submitted his resignation to the municipal commissioner, Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra mentioned.
“Mayor (Manoj Sonkar) has resigned from his put up at present. The matter of mayoral polls is subjudice; the Supreme Courtroom will determine on it tomorrow,” Malhotra mentioned.
This got here after the Congress and AAP had accused the presiding officer for mayoral elections Anil Masih of defacing poll papers. A video of Masih, purportedly tampering with eight votes in the course of the counting course of on January 30 had additionally gone viral on social media – which the highest court docket took a stern view of.
In accordance with Masih, in the course of the counting of votes, Manoj Sonkar received 16 votes, Kuldeep Dhalor of the AAP-Congress alliance bagged 12 votes, whereas eight of the entire 36 votes have been declared invalid.
On February 5, the Supreme Courtroom had rapped Masih, observing that it was apparent that he defaced the ballot papers and that he must be prosecuted, including that his motion amounted to “homicide and mockery” of democracy. The court docket had listed the matter on February 19.
Setback for AAP
“I joined the BJP after getting impressed from the works executed by PM Modi…I’ve left AAP as a result of they’re a pretend celebration,” Punam Devi advised information company ANI.
In accordance with Musawat, the AAP made “false guarantees to them”. “Right this moment after getting impressed by the works of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I’ve joined BJP,” she mentioned.
With this, the BJP can have a majority of 19 votes within the 36-member home for the mayoral polls, whereas the AAP-Congress alliance will probably be left with 17 votes.
(With inputs from companies)