BJP leader and Chandigarh mayor Manoj Sonkar resigned from the post on Sunday night, hours before the Supreme Court was set to hear the case related to the irregularities in the conduct of elections.
Sonkar has submitted his resignation to the municipal commissioner, Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra told reporters. While the resignation came as a boost for the AAP, which approached the court over the matter, three of its councillors switched to the BJP on Sunday, delivering a big blow to the party.
The mayor's resignation came reportedly after a high-level meeting in Delhi, which instructed Sonkar to step down. However, Malhotra blamed the AAP and the Congress for levelling baseless allegations of vote tampering. He added that Sonkar resigned on moral grounds.
The BJP had swept the January 30 Chandigarh mayoral polls, in a setback to the Congress-AAP alliance. However, the AAP approached the top court with allegations that the ballot papers were tampered with by the presiding officer. The AAP also submitted footage before the SC purportedly showing the presiding officer defacing the ballot paper. Following this, the Chief Justice of India slammed the returning officer, stating that his actions amounted to "murder and mockery" of democracy.
The court had also ordered the preservation of ballots and the video of the poll proceedings besides seeking the returning officer's appearance during the next hearing in the case on February 19.
Impressed by PM Modi
The three AAP councillors - Gurcharanjit Singh Kala, Neha and Poonum Devi - told reporters that they decided to join the BJP because they were inspired by the works of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. All three accused the AAP of making false promises.
National general secretary Vinod Tadwe told reporters that the councillors joined BJP as they were unhappy with the treatment meted out to them in AAP. "BJP will respect them and they will help in the development of Chandigarh," Vinod Tawde told ANI.
In the house of 35 members, the BJP has a total of 15 votes in the Municipal Corporation House, including 14 councillors and ex officio members i.e. an MP - Kiron Kher. The AAP has 13 councillors, while the Congress has seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one councillor in the House. The AAP and Congress together had 20 votes and now with the three councillors jumping ship, the BJP has 18 votes while the AAP-Congress alliance will have 18 votes with the help of Shiromani Akali Dal.