The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) managed to get its president elected in the Morinda Municipal Council (MC) on Friday with the support of four independent candidates and three Congress members who defected to the party. Jalpal Singh Jolly, an independent councillor who had joined AAP, was elected as the MC president. Ironically, AAP had won just one seat in the Morinda MC elections, while the Congress had 10 members in the house.Political tensions ran high in Morinda today ahead of the election to the post of president of local MC after former Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi led a protest to the Morinda police station, alleging that police had detained councillors belonging to his camp.Channi reached the police station in the afternoon along with a large number of supporters and elected councillors before the scheduled election. Speaking to reporters outside the police station, he alleged that three Congress councillors had been picked up by the police in an attempt to influence the outcome of the election.Channi claimed that one of the detained councillors had even been locked inside a bathroom at the police station. He alleged that the police action was aimed at preventing the councillors from participating in the election and accused the ruling dispensation of misusing the police machinery for political purposes. Later Channi also reached the Morinda MC office with his party councillors and alleged that Congress members were not allowed to enter the house to vote in the election for the president’s post.Channi said democratic norms were being undermined and asserted that the mandate of the elected representatives has been compromised and AAP government had abused power.The elected councillors of the Morinda Municipal Council gathered at the police station in support of the detained members. In Morinda MC elections, Congress had won 10 out of 15 wards, while Independents won four wards and AAP managed to win just one ward.The protesting councillors alleged that the government had registered a criminal case against them to put pressure on them ahead of the crucial election. The councillors maintained that the action was politically motivated and intended to alter the arithmetic in the Municipal Council before the election of the president. They raised slogans against the Punjab Government and demanded withdrawal of the case registered against them.The confrontation at the police station further intensified the political battle between the Congress and the ruling AAP, with the opposition alleging misuse of state machinery to influence local body elections.No official statement was immediately available from the police regarding the allegations made by Channi or the reasons behind the alleged detention of the councillors.The election to the Morinda Municipal Council president’s post was held amid heightened political tension, with both sides trading allegations over attempts to influence the electoral process. The administration had made elaborate security arrangements in view of the protest and the charged political atmosphere.