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Congress sweeps Punjab local body polls, wins 7 out of 8 municipal corporations
The state’s ruling party was victorious in Bathinda, Abohar, Batala, Moga, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Pathankot, while the results for Mohali will be announced on Thursday.
The ruling Congress in Punjab on Wednesday registered a stunning victory in the state local body polls, winning seven out of eight municipal corporations for which results were declared on the day. The seven municipal corporations are Bathinda, Abohar, Batala, Moga, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Pathankot. The results for the eighth corporation, Mohali, will be announced on Thursday as the Punjab state election commission (SEC) ordered repolling in two wards, which took place on Wednesday.
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The Abohar Municipal Corporation was near-perfect for the Congress, with the party winning 49 out of 50 wards, with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) winning one. The SAD is a former ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose government at the Centre passed three contentious farm laws last September, leading to protests by farmers belonging mostly to Punjab and the neighbouring state of Haryana. Former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal’s party announced its split from the BJP in protest against the three laws.
The fight for the municipal corporation in Moga was a close one as the Congress won 20 wards against SAD’s 15, with the remaining 15 split among the BJP, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the independents. Punjab’s ruling party also won 41 and 37 wards in Hoshiarpur and the BJP’s bastion of Pathankot respectively. Meanwhile, in Bathinda, the Congress won 43 out of 50 wards, with the other seven going to the SAD.
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The result in Bathinda is significant as it is the Lok Sabha constituency of SAD’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who was the party’s only representative in the central government before quitting in the wake of the passage of the agricultural laws. Congress leader and Punjab finance minister Manpreet Badal is the MLA from the Bathinda urban assembly seat. Badal is the cousin of SAD president and former Punjab deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal, the Lok Sabha MP from Firozpur and the husband of Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The result is historic also because this is the first time in 53 years that Bathinda will get a Congress mayor. “History has been made today. Bathinda will get a Congress Mayor for the 1st time in 53 years! Thank you to ALL Bathinda residents,” tweeted Manpreet Singh Badal.
According to reports, the Congress has also been victorious in both the Kapurthala and Batala municipal corporations.
The municipal corporation results come as a huge boost for the Congress ahead of next year’s assembly elections in Punjab. The party has wholeheartedly backed the farmers’ agitation in Delhi against the central farm laws. Voting for the seven municipal corporations along with 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats took place on February 14, with over 71% voters casting their votes. More than 9,000 candidates were in the fray for the local body elections.
