Twelve days after the election to the Chandigarh Mayor’s post was deferred at the last minute after the returning officer pleaded ill, the BJP on Tuesday pulled off a surprise win.

For the INDIA bloc, it was yet another setback as the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had managed to reach an understanding for the post, and billed it as the first such election tie-up between parties of the beleaguered anti-BJP alliance.

A look at what was at stake for the post whose tenure is only one year:

It is a big victory for the BJP, which already held the posts of mayor, senior two deputy mayor and deputy mayor in the Municipal Corporation. As per the Congress-AAP tie-up, AAP was to fight the mayor’s seat, and the Congress, the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts.

After the BJP’s Manoj Sonkar won, the party also took the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor posts, winning 16-0, as the AAP and Congress, protesting over the mayor election, stayed away.

While the Congress and AAP are alleging that “the BJP played foul” in the poll, the latter has suggested there was cross-voting within their ranks.

Given the shaky ground on which the Congress-AAP alliance rests in Punjab and Haryana, a failure to win the mayor seat could be a deal breaker for many in both parties, in both states, who are reluctant to join hands with each other.

The Congress has seven councillors in the Municipal Corporation, and AAP 13, with the two adding up to 20 in the 35-member House. The BJP had 15 votes, courtesy its 14 councillors and the vote of the Chandigarh MP, who is the ex-officio member of the House; currently, that is BJP MP Kirron Kher. One councillor in the house belongs to former BJP ally Akali Dal.

With a total 36 votes to be polled, the Congress and AAP hoped to have an easy win.

This year, by rotation, the mayor’s seat was reserved for a Scheduled Caste candidate.

The BJP’s Manoj Sonkar got 16 votes, while AAP candidate Kuldeep Tita (backed by the Congress) got just 12. As many as 8 votes were declared “invalid”.

Soon after, protests broke out against the presiding authority for the election, nominated councillor Anil Masih, who was once the BJP’s minority cell office-bearer. The Congress and AAP alleged that he declared votes invalid in a “premeditated manner”, while Congress leader Pawan Bansal among others pointed out that the live telecast of the counting showed BJP leaders running away with the ballot papers and tearing them, before the Opposition could get access to them.

Eventually, Marshals had to be called in to control the situation.

Earlier, the voting itself was delayed by an hour even as, amid the confusion, Akali Dal councillor Hardeep Singh sought to exercise the NOTA option. This was rejected because there is no such provision for it in the mayoral poll.

On January 18, the day the mayoral polls were to be held, AAP and Congress councillors reached the venue, when they were told that voting had been halted as presiding officer Anil Masih had taken ill.

The AAP and Congress moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court over the matter, calling what had happened “unconstitutional”. Senior leaders of the two sides also claimed that the postponement showed how “threatened” the BJP felt due to their alliance.

The Chandigarh administration argued that Masih’s illness and apprehensions of law and order had led to the postponement, and sought that the polls be deferred till February 6. However, the High Court ordered that the polls be held on January 30.

Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal called the result “dishonest” and “very 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.”

AAP’s Punjab in-charge and MP Raghav Chadha compared what had happened to “treason”, and demanded the arrest of the presiding officer.

Bansal said: “Congress and AAP agents were not given access to the ballot papers. The presiding officer… conducted a charade of an election… We were seeing live… If you notice, the presiding officer immediately vacated the chair after the voting and the BJP candidate was there standing beside him. BJP members rushed in, took away the ballot papers and tore them before anyone could even go in and see.”

In 2022, after its win in the Assembly elections in Punjab, the AAP had stunned the BJP by winning 14 seats in the Chandigarh corporation polls compared to 12 for the BJP. But later, a councillor from the Congress had moved to the BJP, taking its toll to 13; putting it on a par with the AAP given that the BJP had the Chandigarh MP’s vote too.

When the mayor polls came around, the BJP won, after one vote was declared invalid.

Next year, in 2023, the Congress abstained from voting, with the BJP anyway ahead of the AAP with Congress councillor Gurcharan Singh having joined the BJP, and AAP councillor Taruna having moved to the Congress.