The Chandigarh Mayoral election fiasco

Brut India

What happened with the Chandigarh Mayoral election and why did the Supreme Court have to intervene?

Transcript

00:00Did you or did you not put an X mark on certain ballot papers?

00:03No, no. What are you saying, sir?

00:05Please answer my question.

00:06This was the Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachur,

00:10questioning presiding officer Anil Massey

00:12after he was seen allegedly defacing the ballot papers

00:16used in the Chandigarh mayoral election.

00:18Massey had been a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party since 2015,

00:22but the BJP unit in Chandigarh removed his name from the minority cell

00:26after the election controversy happened.

00:28He presided over the process of electing a mayor for Chandigarh

00:31and announced a BJP candidate as the winner.

00:34But the Supreme Court pulled him up on 19th February 2024.

00:38I want to ask you, what were you doing looking at the camera

00:40and putting your marks to cross out the ballot paper?

00:44Sir, they are doing their work.

00:46They are very good people.

00:47These homesteaders were making so much noise.

00:50Camera, camera, camera, all these.

00:53That's why I was looking at the cameras they are talking about.

00:55That's why I was looking at the cameras.

00:57The Aam Aadmi Party and Congress accused Massey of rigging the election,

01:01which took place on 30th January.

01:04CCTV footage captured Massey tampering with the ballot papers.

01:08He dismissed eight votes of the India bloc as invalid

01:11and the BJP's Manoj Sonkar was announced the winner.

01:15In the mayor's election, 20 votes were with the India bloc

01:19and only 16 votes were with the BJP.

01:24Scenes of chaos emerged from election day

01:27and Massey said AAP and Congress tried to derail the election.

01:30The Chandigarh Police's Marshal Deputy from the Chandigarh Administration

01:34intervened and got the ballot papers removed.

01:38Some of the ballot papers were torn during the process.

01:42Kuldeep Kumar, who was the mayoral candidate for AAP,

01:46moved to the Supreme Court after the Punjab and Haryana High Courts

01:49refused to stay the election results.

01:51On 5th February, the Supreme Court said it was obvious that he defaced the ballot papers.

02:00The apex court had asked Massey to show up on 19th February and explain his conduct.

02:05One day before his appearance, Sonkar resigned from the mayor's post.

02:09Hours after his resignation, three AAP councillors switched over to the BJP.

02:14The AAP accused the BJP of poaching them through unfair means.

02:18But this horse trading did not have a bearing on the final outcome

02:21because the Supreme Court decided that AAP's Kuldeep Kumar

02:24would become the mayor of Chandigarh.

02:26That is the day this exchange between Massey and the CJI happened.

02:30Why were you defacing the ballot papers?

02:32Sir, I...

02:33You know that your function is to sign the ballot papers.

02:39You can sign them. You can sign every ballot paper.

02:42But why were you doing it in such a way that the ballot you had chosen...

02:47You say that you are putting a tick or a cross on it.

02:51Why were you doing that?

02:52Sir, I am repeating that again.

02:55When I saw the ballots, they were pressed in such a way

02:58that it was quite visible.

02:59But they tried to give a mark.

03:02That is the only evidence, sir. I was not...

03:04Why were you putting a mark on those ballots?

03:08Sir, actually, to make this...

03:12I think it was defaced by the candidate.

03:16The Supreme Court observed that Massey lied to the court

03:19and ordered proceedings against him.

03:21So, it's admitted that you put your marks on the ballots?

03:24Yes, sir.

03:26And on eight ballots, basically?

03:27Yes, and they snatched and destroyed immediately.

03:31His answer to what he did is very clear as to what he did.

03:34He has to be prosecuted.

03:36I think interfering with electoral democracy...

03:38Electoral democracy by referring officers is the gravest possible thing.

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