Late Sunday night, one day before the Supreme Court hearing regarding the purported tampering in the mayoral election, BJP leader Manoj Sonkar announced his resignation as mayor of Chandigarh. Less than a month ago, on January 30, he defeated Kuldeep Kumar of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in what was considered to be the first election contest against the INDIA bloc.

Manoj Sonkar submitted his resignation to the municipal commissioner, Chandigarh BJP president Jatinder Pal Malhotra said. “Mayor (Manoj Sonkar) has resigned from his post today. The matter of mayoral polls is subjudice; the Supreme Court will decide on it tomorrow,” Malhotra said.

Earlier in the day, sources told a TV news channel that a meeting of senior BJP leaders took place in New Delhi, following which the party asked Sonkar to resign.

Kuldeep Singh, the joint candidate of the Congress and AAP, managed to garner 12 votes, while the BJP managed to secure 16 votes. Eight votes that sparked a heated dispute between the opposition and the BJP were ruled void.

Three of the AAP’s council members, Poonam Devi, Neha, and Gurcharan Kala, joined the BJP yesterday, so the party’s problems are far from over. With today’s additions, the BJP now has 17 council members out of the 35 members of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation, up from its original 14 seats. Additionally, they have the backing of one council member from the Shiromani Akali Dal, and Chandigarh MP Kirron Kher of the BJP is an ex-officio member with voting rights, bringing the BJP to the crucial 19 seats.

The AAP now has 10 councillors while its ally Congress has seven.

Soon after the results were declared on January 30, chaos broke out in the House with Congress and AAP councillors accusing the BJP of cheating and not following the due electoral process. They also alleged that presiding officer Anil Masih was caught “tampering” with ballot papers in a video that they later submitted to the Supreme Court. The charge was rubbished by the BJP.