The Voice of Chandigarh | MC News

Chandigarh’s newly-elected Mayor, Manoj Sonkar, has resigned ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on the mayoral election matter. Chandigarh BJP President, Jitendra Malhotra, confirmed the news. The resignation comes amidst rumours that three opposition MCs are joining the BJP. Earlier, there were reports that the Aam Aadmi Party may face a big blow in Chandigarh as three of their councilors were likely to join the BJP. The AAP and Congress had alleged that the BJP tampered with the postal ballots and approached the Supreme Court regarding the matter of rigging in the election. The hearing of this case is still going on in the top court, with the next hearing scheduled to be held regarding the Mayor’s dispute. BJP aims to strengthen its numbers by including three councilors of Aam Aadmi Party. It was alleged that eight votes of the Congress-AAP combine were invalidated. The Supreme Court had expressed annoyance regarding the Returning Officer’s conduct during the elections and termed it a “murder of democracy,” stating that the man should be prosecuted. One of the AAP councillors had moved the top court challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order that refused to grant any interim relief to the party seeking fresh mayoral polls in Chandigarh. BJP’s Manoj Kumar Sonkar had emerged victorious in the Chandigarh Mayoral Election, defeating AAP-Congress Alliance candidate Kuldeep Singh.