Having previously held the positions of mayor, senior deputy mayor, and deputy mayor in the Municipal Corporation, this is a significant win for the BJP. According to the agreement between the Congress and the AAP, the AAP was to run for mayor, while the Congress was to run for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor. The AAP and Congress withdrew their protests over the mayoralty election, and the BJP, led by Manoj Sonkar, went on to win 16-0 in both the senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor positions.
In spite of the AAP's suggestion that there was cross-voting among its members, the Congress is insisting that "the BJP played foul" in the election. A loss for the mayoralty might be a deal breaker for many in both parties, in both states, who are unwilling to work together, given the precarious foundations upon which the Congress-AAP alliance stands in Punjab and Haryana.
The Congress has 13 council members in the AAP and seven in the Municipal Corporation, for a total of 20 members in the 35-member House. With 14 council members and the vote of the Chandigarh MP, who serves as an ex-officio member of the House (BJP MP Kirron Kher at the moment), the BJP received 15 votes. Akali Dal, a previous BJP ally, has one councillor in the house. The Congress and AAP were hoping for an easy victory with a total of 36 ballots to be counted.
This year, a Scheduled Caste candidate was given preference for the mayor's seat through rotation. Manoj Sonkar of the BJP received 16 votes, while Kuldeep Tita, the AAP candidate supported by the Congress, received only 12. Up to eight votes were deemed "invalid." After the election, protests were held against the nominee of the presiding authority, councillor Anil Masih, an ex-office-bearer of the BJP's minority cell. In addition, Congress leader Pawan Bansal noted that the live broadcast of the counting showed BJP leaders stealing and shredding ballot papers before the opposition could obtain them. The Congress and AAP accused him of declaring votes invalid in a "premeditated manner."
To keep things under control, marshals had to be called in. As Akali Dal councillor Hardeep Singh attempted to use the NOTA option amidst the chaos, the actual vote process was earlier postponed by one hour. Due to the lack of a corresponding clause in the mayoral poll, this was rejected.
