Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 12: After sharing honours with the Congress in the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP stamped its supremacy in Haryana winning nine of the 10 mayoral posts in municipal corporations with the tenth going to its rebel candidate who contested as an independent.
The Congress, which had hoped to sweep the state Assembly elections last year based on its impressive show in the parliamentary elections and had even surged ahead initially, failed to open its account in the mayoral polls including losing in Gurugram and Rohtak, the home turf of the party stalwart Bhupinder Singh Hooda. After the Assembly polls, it was the second successive defeat for the Congress.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini celebrated the big win, declaring “the people have put their stamp of approval on a ‘triple-engine’ government. I thank the people from the bottom of my heart.”
“Our local body government and this ‘triple-engine’ government will play a crucial role in fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of ‘viksit Bharat‘, ‘developed India’,” he told reporters. The Haryana Education Minister Mahipal Dhanda promised greater development for the state, thanks to a “full public mandate…”
It was only the second time that the Congress has fought local polls under its own symbol only once before. The BJP had fielded top leaders of the party to campaign even in the local elections, particularly in Gurugram which witnessed a direct fight between the BJP and the Congress nominees, including bringing the Rajasthan and Delhi chief ministers while the Congress responded with former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot and Mr Hooda, but failed to impress the voters.
Besides losing in the home turf of Mr Hooda, the Congress defeat in Hisar and Sonipat were particularly alarming for the party as both Hisar and Sonipat Lok Sabha constituencies were won by the Congress in the general elections last year.
In Gurugram, the BJP’s Raj Rani beat the Congress’ Seema Pahuja by over one lakh votes. The battle for Rohtak’s mayoral seat was, on paper, a five-way contest between the BJP, the Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party, the Indian National Lok Dal, and an independent. The BJP’s Ram Avtar emerged the winner securing more than one lakh votes, with the Congress’ Surajmal Kiloi a distant second polling just about 45,000 votes.
In Ambala, the BJP’s Shailja Sachdeva was elected as Mayor. She defeated the Congress’ Amisha Chawla by 20,487 votes. In Faridabad, Parveen Joshi beat the Congress’ Lata Rani.
The BJP also claimed Hisar, Karnal and Panipat. The BJP’s Praveen Popli beat the Congress’ Krishan Singla in Hisar. In Karnal, the BJP’s Renu Bala Gupta beat the Congress’ Manoj Wadhwa, while in Panipat, the BJP’s Komal Saini defeated the Congress’ Savita Garg.
Senior BJP leader Rajiv Jain saw off a challenge from the Congress’ Komal Dewan in Sonipat. And, in Yamunanagar, Suman of the BJP beat the Congress’ Kirna Devi. Only in the newly-formed municipal corporation Manesar, the independent candidate Dr Inderjit Yadav, a BJP rebel, defeated the BJP’s Sunder Lal Sarpanch with 2,000-odd votes in a close contest. Congress’ Neeraj Yadav finished fourth with 5,143 votes.
The elections to 41 municipal bodies, including the by-polls to eight, were held on March 2. Besides the election to Mayor and president’s post, 650-odd wards also went to polls in municipal elections across the State. Voting in Faridabad, Hisar, Rohtak, Karnal, and Yamunanagar, as well as Gurugram and Manesar – was on March 2. By-polls for the mayoral posts in the Ambala and Sonipat corporations were held on the same day. Panipat voted on March 9. Simultaneously, voting 21 municipal committees were also held.
Overall voter turnout was seen as disappointing – it was only 41 per cent, a record low according to some reports, compared to 68 per cent for the Assembly election. As many as 26 ward members have been elected unopposed.
