Team News Riveting
The ruling Congress party in Punjab recorded a thumping victory in the elections to the municipal corporations in the state throwing the BJP, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), an NDA partner till recently and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the wayside.
While the counting of votes for the Mohali municipal corporation was deferred till Thursday due to by-polling in two wards, the Congress had captured all the remaining seven municipal corporations and in most of the cities with massive mandate.
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 Abohar Municipal Corporation was near-perfect for the Congress, with the party winning 49 out of 50 wards, with the SAD winning in one ward.
The farmers’ protest against the three controversial agriculture acts had probably cast its shadow in the local body elections also as the BJP suffered a major jolt and the SAD which was a former ally of the party ruling the Centre, also feeling the heat.
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, the AAP and the independents. Punjab’s ruling party also won 41 and 37 wards in Hoshiarpur and the BJP’s bastion of Pathankot respectively while in Bathinda, the Congress won 43 out of 50 wards, with the other seven going to the SAD.
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.
The results, ahead of the state Assembly polls, would serve as a booster for Capt Amarinder Singh who is aiming for another term in the 2022 Assembly elections. It would be a signal for detractors of the Chief Minister.
