Independents sweep Manesar civic polls, BJP to introspect loss

The Congress failed to win a single seat, with its mayoral candidate Neeraj Yadav finishing fourth in the polling

Gurugram

The returning officer presents the win certificate to mayor-elect Dr Inderjit Yadav. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

In an upset to the overall municipal body polling trends, voters in Manesar opted for independent candidate Dr Indrajit Yadav as their mayor and chose independents as their councillors in 13 of 20 wards in the first-ever elections held to the Manesar Municipal Corporation since its inception in 2020.

The Congress failed to win a single seat, with its mayoral candidate Neeraj Yadav finishing fourth in the polling. Independent candidate Dr Inderjit Yadav won the Manesar mayoral polls by 2,293 votes. She secured 26,393 votes, defeating BJP’s Sunder Lal Yadav, who secured 24,100 votes. Another independent, Dr Vijay Singh from Wazirpur, clocked 9,163 votes.

Mayor-elect Yadav she “will start working” for the people of Manesar from “the first day itself and prepare an elaborate plan with officials to resolve the problems” of damaged roads, lack of drinking water, sewage issues and improvement in sanitation.

“I have entered politics to serve the larger family in Manesar. I have not made promises but pledged service to people. The people of Manesar will now be rid of broken roads, sewer blockages, waterlogging and dirt. First of all, I will focus on the improvement of roads. We will work with people to ensure development of Manesar,” she said.

Gurugram district BJP president Kamal Yadav said the party won convincingly across the state, including Gurugram. “We have won 24 wards in MCG and the post of mayor with big margin as people have reposed faith in the double engine government of the BJP. We have faced an upset in Manesar due to the fact that MCM is a rural constituency and the BJP had fewer urban voters in the area. We will look into the reasons for this setback and make amends in the future,” he said.

Senior BJP leaders from south Haryana refused to comment on whether political differences among key leaders could have led to the setback in Manesar.

There are 96,000 registered voters in Manesar. The polling took place on March 2, and saw a voter turnout of 67.3%.

BJP candidates who won in Manesar are Reema Chauhan (Ward 2), Ruchi Kaushik (Ward 3), Ripu Sharma (Ward 4), Dinesh Yadav (Ward 5), Bal Kishan (Ward 6), Jyoti Verma (Ward 9), and Pratap Singh (Ward 20).

Independents who won the election are Jagminder (Ward 1), Kanwarpal (Ward 7), Bhupendra (Ward 8), Ram Prakash (Ward 10), Manoj Kumar (Ward 11), Praveen Kumar (Ward 12), Ravindra (Ward 13), Sangeeta Yadav (Ward 14), Pinky (Ward 15), Daya Ram (Ward 16), Suman Kumari (Ward 17), Pravesh Yadav (Ward 18), Ravi Kumar (Ward 19).