BJP’s Manoj Sonkar likely to resign as Chandigarh mayor day before Supreme Court hearing

BJP’s Manoj Sonkar likely to resign as Chandigarh mayor day before Supreme Court hearing

In the latest twist to the Chandigarh mayoral polls row, Mayor Manoj Sonkar of the BJP is likely to resign on Sunday, just a day before the Supreme Court was set to hear the matter.

Sources said a meeting of senior office-bearers of the BJP took place in Delhi with the party high command on Saturday, following which the party asked Sonkar to resign.

A senior BJP leader, on the condition of anonymity, said, “The mayor has been asked to resign, and he will resign today (Sunday) evening. Senior party leaders will be present.”

Just a few days before the hearing, Chandigarh BJP had also dropped Anil Masih, the presiding officer under fire for allegedly defacing ballot papers, from its minority cell.

The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have been seeking the removal of Sonkar, alleging foul play in the mayoral election held on January 30. It was alleged by the opposition that Sonkar had won after Masih scribbled on ballot papers and invalidated eight votes of the Congress-AAP combine by himself.

Masih was the general secretary of the minority cell of the Chandigarh BJP. He was set to appear before the Supreme Court on Monday.

On January 18, when the elections were originally slated, Masih had fallen ill, leading to the polls being postponed to January 30.

After the defeat, the Congress-AAP combine approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, seeking cancellation of the result and holding the Chandigarh mayor elections again.

The Supreme Court later observed that what happened during the Chandigarh mayor election was a “mockery of democracy” and said, “we will not allow democracy to be murdered like this”.

A three-judge bench presided over by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud also asked the presiding officer to appear on the next hearing date, February 19.

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