BJP's "Thagbandhan" vs AAP's "Fraud" Jibes Over Chandigarh Mayor Polls

BJP National President JP Nadda has congratulated his party's Chandigarh unit for winning the Chandigarh Mayoral polls held on Monday.

"Congratulations to @BJP4Chandigarh Unit for winning the Mayor election. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi Ji, UTs have witnessed record development. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle and still lost to BJP shows that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry," Mr Nadda posted on X.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a shot at the BJP, alleging that the mayoral elections were tainted by an open display of dishonesty.

"The manner in which dishonesty has been done in broad daylight in the Chandigarh Mayor elections is extremely worrying. If these people can stoop so low in a mayor's election, then they can go to any extent in the country's elections. This is very worrying," Mr Kejriwal posted on X.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Raghav Chadha too has expressed his disappointment with the results of the Mayoral elections and said that he will expose the "fraud" done by BJP.

Mr Chadha, taking to the microblogging site X, said, "I, along with senior Congress leader Pawan Bansal, will address a joint press conference at 2:30 PM at Punjab Bhawan, Chandigarh. We will expose the FRAUD that BJP has committed today in Chandigarh Mayor Elections."

However, BJP national spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill declared BJP's win the "victory of democracy".

"BJP's victory in the Chandigarh Mayoral elections is the victory of democracy and the defeat of 'thagbandhan' of AAP and Congress. BJP's victory is the victory of truth over lies, the victory of nation-serving politics over the politics of corruption, and the victory of people-serving politics over the opportunistic politics of AAP and Congress," he said.

"The INDI Alliance should understand by now that the addition of zero to zero is zero. The INDI alliance's defeat in the Chandigarh Mayoral elections is a trailer and in 2024, INDI will come to know who stands where. The whole country is resonating with just one voice--'Yeh Dil Mange More, Modi Sarkar, Once More'," added Mr Shergill.

AAP MP Sandeep Pathak said that the result of the mayoral election poses a deep concern.

"The level of dishonesty witnessed in the Chandigarh mayoral election is deeply concerning. If these malpractices can occur in a local election, it raises serious questions about the integrity of our national elections. This is extremely alarming and calls for a thorough examination of our electoral processes," read the post by Mr Pathak on X.

Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, sharing a video on social media platform X, claimed that a senior bureaucrat in the video can be seen manipulating the votes of the mayoral elections.

"@bjp4india is not just corrupt. It is hell bent to murder democracy. They are comfortable with using muscle power, agencies, money, pressure tactics, using the officers and what not...The attached video clearly shows a senior bureaucrat manipulating the votes. Today's incident is not just concerning for the political class... it should be concerning for every parent, for every student, for every citizen of this country... do we want such future for our kids? Do we want a dictatorship? And if the answer is no... it's time to fight back! Otherwise it will soon be too late," Mr Warring posted on X.

After a high-voltage drama around the Chandigarh mayoral elections, the BJP emerged victorious after the votes were cast and counted on Tuesday. The polls were rescheduled to January 30 after the presiding officer fell ill on the original date, January 8.

The fresh scheduling of the elections, which Raghav Chadha described as the first direct electoral contest between the BJP and the Opposition bloc INDIA, were held after an order of the Punjab-Haryana High Court.

As the votes were counted following polling on Tuesday, BJP's mayoral candidate, Manoj Sonkar, bagged 16 votes while his rival, jointly supported by the AAP and the Congress, Kuldeep, got 12.

Crucially, eight votes were declared invalid. According to sources, as the BJP candidate was declared the winner, bedlam broke and members of the saffron party and the joint Opposition came to blows.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)