Book Masih and masterminds who made him invalidate 8 ballots: AAP

Addressing a press conference, AAP leader Dr SS Ahluwalia showed the purported videos. “Not just Masih, but a case should also be registered against the masterminds who got eight votes invalidated by Masih,” Ahluwalia, who is also co-in-charge of Chandigarh AAP and the Chairman of the Punjab Water Supply and Sewerage Board, said.

Showing videos purportedly of the election day (January 30) on a big screen, Ahluwalia said, “It is clearly visible in the video that on that day (election day) 20 votes went to Kuldeep Kumar, the joint mayoral candidate of the AAP and the Congress, and 16 to the BJP.”
“However presiding officer Anil Masih, who is the BJP minority cell general secretary and a nominated councillor, deliberately rejected eight votes of Kuldeep Kumar using a pen to make the BJP candidate win, which has been captured on camera. Democracy has been murdered by a complete conspiracy by the BJP in the Municipal Corporation elections,” he alleged.

Taking the names of BJP councillors, nominated councillors and a former BJP mayor, the AAP leader alleged that “they directed removal/movement of cameras so that he (Masih) could invalidate them (votes), but unfortunately, the timing (of camera movement) was delayed and Masih’s deeds were captured on camera”.

“Now everything has come in front of the people, who are demanding the mayor forcefully appointed by the BJP in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation be removed. People will never forgive the BJP. They will punish the BJP for murdering \democracy,” Ahluwalia alleged.
Meanwhile, former Congress MP Pawan Kumar Bansal said, “Masih was merely a pawn, who was first hailed as a saviour for the BJP. Now, he will become a sacrificial lamb for them.”

“Anil Masih will be held accountable for the murder of democracy in the mayoral election, but the truth is that many prominent faces of the BJP were involved in orchestrating the entire game. A new video of the election emerged today and clearly showed BJP councillors, nominated councillors and a former BJP mayor instructing someone to remove the camera before Anil Masih. Moreover, it is evident how Masih invalidated eight votes of the Congress and AAP,” Bansal said.

“Even a private channel has exposed everything, making it clear the entire team of BJP in Chandigarh was involved in this heinous conspiracy. Those who sat on the councillors’ chair based on the trust of the people in democracy were now involved in the murder of the same democracy. Shouldn’t their memberships be revoked? Shouldn’t cases be filed against them, too? I even say this would not have happened without the approval of the leadership in Delhi, so the truth should also come out before the people. Because if this wasn’t the case, action would have been taken against them at the party level by now. But, the conscience of the BJP has died to such an extent that they are now openly engaging in such acts in front of cameras. It is possible that they tampered with evidence as well, so they don’t know how big a crime they are committing,” Bansal alleged.

Bansal demanded that “the fraud in the mayoral election and evidence of BJP’s conspiracy have come to light, the BJP Mayor should not be allowed to stay in office for even one more day”.

Hitting back at the AAP and the Congress over the charges levelled against the BJP, former president of the BJP Chandigarh unit Arun Sood told The Indian Express, “If they are so truthful why don’t they show the part of the video clippings where their councillors are snatching and tearing off ballot papers, which had to be taken in possession with the help of marshals.”

Denying the camera shifting charges, Sood said, “The allegations are false. If that’s the case, then how come the camera is intact and capturing every moment? How come every moment of the election is captured? All these are false allegations, and we will think over what can be done.”