Congress leaders cast invalid votes in Chandigarh mayoral polls due to tussle with AAP: BJP

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, January 30

The BJP on Tuesday said the disintegration of the INDIA bloc, sparring between its partners and the resultant “demoralisation” of cadres were to be blamed for the defeat of the Congress and the AAP in the Chandigarh mayoral polls, the maiden battle the two opposition allies had fought together.

The BJP went to the extent of saying that the Congress councillors allegedly cast invalid votes as they did not want AAP to win having been subjected to “politics of pressure and duress by the Arvind Kejriwal-led party and having become anxious after Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann’s public announcement to contest all 13 Punjab parliamentary seats alone”. “That the INDIA bloc fought their first electoral battle and still lost to the BJP shows that neither their arithmetic is working nor chemistry,” BJP president JP Nadda.

Senior BJP leaders rejected the accusations of bias against the polling officer, whose video signing some ballot papers went viral. Party general secretary Vinod Tawde, who was in Chandigarh to oversee the polls, told The Tribune that the polling officer was signing the papers as part of a legal mandate for UT mayoral elections.

“Had he not signed the ballot papers, those would have become invalid,” argued Tawde, accusing the AAP of holding up INDIA councillors in a Punjab resort, in signs of “distrust” among allies.

“No alliance can rest on mistrust. Moreover, when AAP and Congress struck a deal for the Chandigarh mayoral polls, INDIA bloc had some footing. But then Punjab CM Mann announced that his party would contest all Punjab Lok Sabha seats alone. A Congress backlash to this public embarrassment was only natural. Then Nitish Kumar quit the alliance and everyone’s morale was hit. This demoralisation caused some Congress councillors today to deliberately cast invalid votes,” said Tawde.

BJP sources privately flagged speculation that AAP leader Raghav Chadha’s wife was likely being considered for the Chandigarh Lok Sabha seat, something, they said, “could have caused anxieties in the city Congress unit where former Union Minister Pawan Bansal was a strong claimant for the ticket”.