Punjab: Congress sweeps local body polls, BJP, SAD routed amid farmers' protest
Despite having a sitting mayor in the district, the saffron party could bag only 11 seats in the municipal corporation.
FollowThe ruling Congress swept the urban local body polls in Punjab leaving both Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP far behind, as the results began to trickle in.
The party bagged all the bodies for which the results were declared today: Moga, Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Abohar, Pathankot, Batala, and Bathinda - the last one also being the most stunning result of the day as it was after 53 years that the city was returning to the Congress fold. Mohali's results will be declared only tomorrow.
The outcome of the elections are significant as it comes amid farmers’ protests in the state and during the last year of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s government. This is the first time the MC elections, which were postponed from last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, have been held during the Assembly election year, putting additional pressure on political parties to perform well. Over 70% of the electorate turned up to vote on February 14.
Besides the Congress, independents, too, fared very well in the polls while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had launched a robust campaign, performed below expectations. Despite having a sitting mayor in the district, the saffron party could bag only 11 seats in the municipal corporation.
What will sweeten the results for the party is the massive margins by which it won in some of the corporations. Doing well in all the three regions of Punjab, the Congress swept six out of the eight municipal corporations in the state. The party won 49 out of 50 seats in Abohar, 43 in Bathinda, 41 in Hoshiarpur and 43 in Kapurthala. It also made massive inroads into the BJP dominated Pathankot, bagging 37 out of 50 seats. It did well in Batala too, with 35 seats.
Repolling is underway in two wards of Mohali Municipal Corporation, the results of which will be announced on Thursday.
Moga was the only civic body where the Congress didn’t do too well, bagging 20 out of 50 seats and SAD winning 15.
