he Congress on Tuesday hailed the Supreme Court decision on the "farcical election" for the mayor's post in Chandigarh and said it has saved democracy from the fangs of an "autocratic BJP" that resorted to dirty election manipulation.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the "institutional sabotage" in the Chandigarh mayoral poll is only the "tip of the iceberg in Modi-Shah's devious conspiracy to trample democracy".

"All Indians must fight this onslaught on our Constitution, collectively. Never forget. Our democracy shall be at the crossroads in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections," he said in a post on X.

Slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the top court's verdict, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, "Masih (the returning officer for the poll) is just a 'pawn' in the BJP's conspiracy to murder democracy, behind which is the 'face' of Modi." Congress general secretary K C Venugopal said the apex court's decision on the "farcical election" for the mayor's post in Chandigarh will go a long way to save Indian democracy.

"The entire election process was a complete farce, which has been duly exposed with this historic verdict," Venugopal said in a post on X.

"For 4 months, we have been frequently seeking time from the Election Commission to discuss the issue of complete VVPAT counting, but it has not found any time for us so far.

"We hope the ECI moves swiftly and takes steps that will improve the people's faith in the democratic process -- not dent it," he added on the microblogging platform.

The Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it would direct a recounting of the votes polled in the controversial Chandigarh mayoral election and declaration of the result after considering eight defaced ballots declared invalid by the returning officer.

The court also ordered the prosecution of returning officer Anil Masih for "misdemeanour".

The court overturned the result of the poll, in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate had emerged as an unlikely winner, and declared AAP-Congress alliance candidate Kuldeep Kumar as the new mayor of Chandigarh.

It also ordered the prosecution of Masih, a BJP leader, for his "misdemeanour", after finding serious faults in the conduct of the January 30 election.

The apex court made it clear that it was not quashing the entire electoral exercise and restricting itself to dealing with the wrong-doings in the counting process, which led to the invalidation of eight votes cast in Kumar's favour.

A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud said it was evident that Masih had made deliberate attempts to deface the eight ballot papers.

The BJP won the poll, defeating the comfortably-placed AAP-Congress alliance candidate, after the returning officer declared the eight votes of the coalition partners invalid, drawing accusations of tampering with ballots.

Manoj Sonkar of the BJP defeated Kumar after polling 16 votes against his rival's 12. Sonkar, however, resigned subsequently, while three AAP councillors defected to the BJP.

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