Punjab Chief Minister <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/india-news/article/punjab-cm-launches-sadak-surakhya-force-to-streamline-traffic-check-road-accidents-23332050" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Bhagwant Mann</a> on Tuesday alleged "cheating" in the Chandigarh mayoral polls and said the day will be remembered as Black Day for country's democracy.
His reaction came after the BJP swept the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/india-news/article/bhagwant-mann-targets-centre-over-non-inclusion-of-punjab-tableau-in-republic-day-parade-23331937" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Chandigarh mayoral polls</a>, winning all the three posts including of mayor, as it defeated the Congress-AAP alliance.
Mann said now his worry is that those who did the "cheating" can go to any extent in the parliamentary elections.
"This day will be remembered as Black Day for our country's democracy," Mann told a news conference.
In the mayoral polls, BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar defeated the AAP's Kuldeep Kumar for the mayor's post, polling 16 votes against the 12 won by his rival. Eight votes were declared invalid.
In Chandigarh, councillors of the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/india-news/article/punjabis-have-made-countless-sacrifices-sad-that-states-tableaus-not-included-in-republic-day-parade-cm-bhagwat-mann-23331934" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">INDIA bloc</a> parties -- AAP and Congress -- protested as soon as the results were announced.
The Punjab CM accused presiding officer Anil Masih of making some marks on the ballots during the counting, rendering them invalid and stated that the invalid ballots tilted the balance in the BJP candidate's favour.
"This has come when we celebrated the <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/news/india-news/article/why-is-bjp-govt-shying-away-from-using-ballots-papers-in-polls-instead-of-evms-asks-punjab-cm-23330754" target="_blank" rel="none noopener">Republic Day</a> a few days ago. Now, in the polls, the Constitution has been trampled. I will say that the mayoral elections were looted by the BJP.
"Earlier, such examples have been there and they did so in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, and Maharashtra...they do this in northeastern states," Mann said.
He said before the start of the polls on Tuesday, a demonstration was given by the officials for the councillors.
"It was surprising that first, the presiding officer came late by nearly 40 minutes when polls were scheduled to take place. Later, when ballots were taken out (for mayor post), he first counted the ballots. In another round, he is seen signing those ballots," said Mann, alleging there was tampering with the ballot papers in the elections.
He claimed this was visible in the video as the whole thing was being videographed.
Mann also said there were no agents of the AAP and Congress, who should have been allowed to be there.
"Anil Masih is an office-bearer of BJP's minority wing, who was made presiding officer," he said.
"I demand that 'deshdroh' (treason) case should be registered against the presiding officer. He has murdered democracy," alleged Mann.
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever.
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Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann alleged "cheating" in the Chandigarh mayoral polls and said the day will be remembered as Black Day

Chandigarh mayoral polls: Black Day for country's democracy, says Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann

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Mann said now his worry is that those who did the "cheating" can go to any extent in the parliamentary elections

Chandigarh mayoral polls: Black Day for country's democracy, says Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann

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Home / News / India News / Article / Chandigarh mayoral polls: Black Day for country's democracy, says Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann

Chandigarh mayoral polls: Black Day for country's democracy, says Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann

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