'Dishonesty in broad daylight, extremely worrying...' Kejriwal after Chandigarh mayoral poll defeat

Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief 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 on Tuesday. Kejriwal's AAP partnered with the Congress for this civic poll, which was billed as the INDIA bloc's first true electoral test. However, the partnership fell short of expectations.

Taking to X (formerly known as Twitter),he wrote: "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."

The BJP's Manoj Sonkar won the Mayor's seat with 16 votes in the 35+1-member municipal body. The AAP's Kuldeep Kumar 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.

Meanwhile, the BJP has responded with a message of congratulations for its Chandigarh unit. Taking to X, JP Nadda wrote: "Congratulations to @BJP4Chandigarh Unit for winning the Mayor election. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri  @narendramodi  Ji, UTs have witnessed record development. That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle and still lost to BJP shows that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry."