Opinion Express View on SC verdict on Chandigarh mayor election: Small poll, large lesson
Attempt to hijack Chandigarh mayor election, overturning of result by SC, carries a timely message about primacy of due process
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With Lok Sabha elections drawing closer, the overturning of the results of the Chandigarh mayoral polls by the Supreme Court carries a message, or a warning, for political players. It took a relatively minor election of a municipal corporation mayor, for a term of one year, to lay down an important red line for those who would seek to bend due process to their will to win.
The attempt to hijack the election evidently did not bargain for SC scrutiny, with the Chief Justice of India perusing first the video tape of what turned out to be rigged polling, and then the ballot papers. At stake were 35 votes, and the parties involved tried to hide behind the very electoral process they were trying to subvert. The returning officer invalidated eight votes cast by members of the AAP-Congress alliance, tipping the scales for a narrow victory for the BJP.
Ironically, the ballots he attempted to tamper with — marked with a cross — came back to haunt as the case reached the apex court. Now that the flawed election has been overturned and the candidate of the AAP-Congress alliance has been declared the mayor, it’s time to pause and reflect on the way ahead. Murmurs have already begun about the future course of action by the BJP, which has added three AAP councillors to its kitty. The CJI has also expressed concern about horse-trading during the hearing. While there are legal safeguards against defection in state legislatures and Parliament, municipal bodies are more vulnerable.
The lawmakers did not anticipate, perhaps, that party politics would permeate local elections, originally envisioned as a platform for citizens to vote for individuals best suited to address day-to-day concerns. However, as was showcased in this election, local corporations have evolved into political hotbeds, mirroring the intrusion of politics into Panchayati bodies long ago.
The mayoral election may have been a small arena, but the stakes were painted larger. After all, AAP leaders had elevated the poll to the national platform by calling it the beginning of the victorious march of the INDIA bloc. This unsavoury episode has ended on a cautionary note: The integrity of the electoral process cannot be compromised, at any level. Too much is at stake.
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