"Dishonesty": Arvind Kejriwal Furious After Chandigarh Mayoral Poll Loss

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal hit out at the BJP on Tuesday afternoon, accusing the party of "dishonesty" after it eased to victory in the Chandigarh mayoral election held earlier today.

Mr Kejriwal's AAP allied with the Congress for this civic poll - pitched as the first real electoral test of the INDIA bloc - but the alliance failed to deliver. The BJP won 16 votes in the 35+1-member municipal body. The AAP should have received 20 - including eight from the Congress - but received only 12. Eight votes were declared "invalid" triggering howls of protest from the two parties.

"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.

चंडीगढ़ मेयर चुनाव में दिन दहाड़े जिस तरह से बेईमानी की गई है, वो बेहद चिंताजनक है। यदि एक मेयर चुनाव में ये लोग इतना गिर सकते हैं तो देश के चुनाव में तो ये किसी भी हद तक जा सकते हैं। ये बेहद चिंताजनक है।

An AAP councillor, Prellata, told news agency ANI, "We will approach the High Court. Today, the BJP won by deceit. The ballot was snatched from my hand. How can eight votes be invalid?" She also declared that BJP Chandigarh Lok Sabha MP Kirron Kher "was continuously signalling..."

The BJP has responded with a message of congratulations for its Chandigarh unit.

Party boss JP Nadda posted, "Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modiji, union territories have witnessed record development. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle, and still lost to BJP, shows neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry."

The Chandigarh mayoral election was to have been the landmark first win for the INDIA bloc, of which the AAP and Congress are key members. It was also supposed to indicate a happy resolution of seat-sharing squabbles between INDIA members ahead of similar talks for the Lok Sabha election.

The AAP and Congress have been at odds over sharing Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and Delhi. Their respective state units are firmly against an alliance; Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said last week the party would field candidates for all 13 seats, and the Congress' Partap Bajwa, speaking exclusively to NDTV, shot back, "This is what cadre in Punjab wanted from the beginning!"

Ultimately, though, the loss has further weakened the opposition group, which is already on the edge of collapse after two of its biggest members - Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) walked out. In the latter case, Nitish's switch to the BJP made matters worse.