Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Janta Party's (BJP) Manoj Sonkar won the Chandigarh mayoral elections today, defeating the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Kuldeep Kumar. The BJP was pitted against an alliance between the Congress and AAP, in the first contest between the newly formed Opposition coalition and the NDA, following Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's sensational switchover to the latter.

The BJP won 16 seats in the 35-member Chandigarh municipal corporation while eight votes were declared invalid.

The AAP-Congress alliance strategically nominated candidates for various positions. Mr Kumar, representing the AAP, contested for the mayoral post, while the Congress fielded candidates for senior deputy mayor and deputy mayor.

The senior deputy mayor post saw Kuljeet Sandhu of the BJP facing off against Congress's Gurpreet Singh Gabi, while the deputy mayor position was contested between BJP's Rajinder Sharma and Congress's Nirmala Devi.

The results of these contests are awaited.

source: Ndtv