The court overturned the result of the poll, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate had emerged as an unlikely winner, and declared AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new mayor of Chandigarh.It also ordered the prosecution of Anil Masih, a BJP leader, for his “misdemeanour” after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election.The apex court made it clear that it was not quashing the entire electoral exercise and restricting itself to dealing with the wrongdoings in the counting process, which led to the invalidation of eight votes cast in Kumar’s favour.A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said it was evident that Masih had made deliberate attempts to deface the eight ballot papers.The BJP won the poll, defeating the comfortably-placed AAP-Congress alliance candidate, after the returning officer declared the eight votes of the coalition partners invalid, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots.Manoj Sonkar of the BJP defeated Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival’s 12. Sonkar, however, resigned subsequently, while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP
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