The Supreme Court declared on Tuesday that Kuldeep Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party was the rightful winner of last month’s Chandigarh mayoral election, putting an end to weeks of controversy fueled by the Returning Officer, Anil Masih, purposely rejecting and discarding eight votes in favour of the AAP candidate.
Mr. Masih is also facing a contempt of court case – he has been issued a ‘show cause’ notice – initiated by the top court, which came down hard on the former BJP Minority Cell member, who was repeatedly warned of prosecution if he was proven to have lied to the court in any way.
The court’s groundbreaking decision also means that the AAP and the Congress, who contested the poll in coalition, have secured the INDIA opposition bloc’s first electoral victory in its battle to topple Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP in the April/May general election.