In a major setback to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress, the BJP swept the Chandigarh Mayoral polls on Tuesday, retaining the three top posts in a setback to the AAP and the Congress which had contested the elections as allies.

BJP candidate Manoj Sonkar defeated the AAP's Kuldeep Kumar for the Mayor's post, polling 16 votes against the 12 won by his rival. Eight votes were declared invalid.  BJP nominees Kuljit Sandhu and Rajinder Sharma were declared elected to the posts of senior Deputy Mayor and Deputy Mayor, respectively.

AAP leader Raghav Chadha said they will approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking fresh elections.

The AAP has allied with the Congress for this civic poll — pitched as the first real electoral test of the INDIA bloc ahead of a Lok Sabha election in less than three months’ time but the alliance failed to deliver.

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 Punjab, the AAP and the Congress have indicated that they are reluctant to contest the Lok Sabha polls together even though they are both in the INDIA grouping. But they agreed to contest together in Mayoral elections in Chandigarh, the Union Territory that serves as the Capital of both Punjab and Haryana. 

As part of the alliance in Chandigarh, the AAP contested for the Mayor's post while the Congress fielded candidates for the two other posts.

The BJP has 14 Councillors in the 35-member Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. The AAP has 13 Councillors and the Congress seven. The Shiromani Akali Dal has one Councillor.  After the loss, the AAP and the Congress hit out at the BJP alleging "shameless capture" of the democratic system in the country and termed it black day for democracy while the BJP rubbished the allegations. The AAP and the Congress accused presiding officer Anil Masih of making some marks on the ballots during the counting, rendering them invalid. They argued that the "invalid" ballots tilted the balance in the BJP candidate's favour.

Congratulating his party unit for the victory, BJP chief JP Nadda said the defeat of the INDIA Bloc candidate in the Chandigarh mayoral polls has shown that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry.

Commenting on the development, Nadda wrote on X, "Congratulations to the Chandigarh BJP unit for winning the Mayor election."  Under Prime Minister Narendra Mod's leadership, the Union Territories have witnessed "record development", the BJP chief said.

"That the INDI Alliance fought their first electoral battle and still lost to BJP shows that neither their arithmetic is working nor their chemistry," Nadda said taking a dig at the opposition unity.

While Kejriwal alleged the BJP indulged in "hooliganism" during the Chandigarh Mayoral polls, and called the series of events during the election a "black day for democracy".

Addressing a Press conference here, the AAP national convener said the entire country saw what happened in the Chandigarh Mayoral polls.

"It is a black day for democracy. Everyone saw how they stole votes and forcibly made their candidate win. The issue is not who becomes Mayor but the country should not lose and the democracy should not lose. Mayors come and go, parties come and go," he said.

"The AAP-Congress alliance had a clear majority and it was a straight election. Eight votes or 25 per cent of the total votes were declared invalid. What kind of election was this? The Mayoral poll result shows there is something wrong and at a large scale, they can go to any extent in national polls," he alleged.

Kejriwal said the BJP-led Centre is "resorting" to extreme actions to target opposition leaders, breaking parties and toppling Governments.

"Brazen, shameless capture of the democratic system. Declaring Opposition votes invalid to win the Mayor Election in Chandigarh shows that it is second nature for the BJP to override the democratic mandate," AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said in a post on X.

"First they abruptly postponed the elections, and then devised a way to capture it. This is a warning for all those who are deluded into thinking that the Modi-led BJP will allow democracy to function if they win in 2024," he said.

The polls, being held following the directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, assumes significance with Opposition INDIA Bloc members Congress and AAP joining hands to contest the elections.

Tight security arrangements are in place for the Mayoral polls. Around 700 police personnel, along with those from paramilitary forces, have been deployed for maintaining law and order during the election at the municipal corporation building, officials said.

In its January 24 order, the High Court directed the Chandigarh administration to hold the Mayoral polls at 10 am on January 30. It also quashed the administration's January 18 order postponing the elections while holding it "unreasonable, unjustified and arbitrary".

The High Court had also directed that the Councillors who come to cast their votes shall not be accompanied by any supporters or security personnel belonging to any other State. The Chandigarh Police will ensure security to the Councillors, the court had said.

Elections to the three posts are held every year during the House's five-year term. The Congress had abstained from voting in 2022 and 2023, leading to the BJP's victory in the polls. The election of the Mayor is done through secret ballots.

For this year's elections -- the third for this term -- the Mayor's seat has been reserved for the Scheduled Caste category.