BJP’s Manoj Sonkar resigns as Chandigarh Mayor day before Supreme Court hearing

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Sonkar resigned from the position of Chandigarh Mayor on Sunday, a day before the scheduled Supreme Court hearing on alleged irregularities in the vote-counting process.

Earlier in the day, sources told India Today TV that a meeting of senior BJP leaders took place in New Delhi, following which the party asked Sonkar to resign.

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which alleged that the BJP tampered with the postal ballots during the January 30 Chandigarh mayoral poll.

Manoj Sonkar of the BJP defeated the AAP’s Kuldeep Kumar for the Mayor’s post, polling 16 votes against his rival’s 12. Eight votes were declared invalid.

The opposition councillors from AAP and the Congress alleged that the Presiding Officer had tampered with the ballot papers, a charge rubbished by the BJP.

Several videos of presiding officer Anil Masih being caught “tampering” with ballot papers went viral on social media.

Appalled by the alleged defacing of ballot papers, the Supreme Court lashed out at the Presiding Officer and said it amounted to a mockery of democracy. The top court also ordered that the ballots and the video of the electoral proceedings be preserved.

A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra expressed annoyance after watching the video of the electoral proceedings and said that, prima facie, the returning officer was defacing the ballot papers.

“It is obvious that he (Presiding Officer) has defaced the ballot papers. He needs to be prosecuted. Why is he looking at the camera? Mr Solicitor, this is a mockery of democracy and murdering democracy. We are appalled,” the bench said.

The Supreme Court also directed the Presiding Officer to remain present before the court on February 19 to explain his conduct as shown on the video.