New Delhi:
The Congress is on course for a second successive election defeat in Haryana.
Counting Wednesday morning for municipal body polls show the ruling BJP is leading in, or has already won, the mayoral seat for nine of 10 civic bodies, including in Gurugram and Rohtak, the bastion of Bhupinder Hooda, one of the Congress’ senior-most state leaders.
An independent candidate – Dr Inderjit Yadav, a rebel BJP leader – is ahead in the tenth, Manesar.
In fairness, the Congress – which slumped to defeat in the Assembly election last year despite racing into a big early lead – has only fought local polls under its own symbol only once before.
This time, though, the party fielded several candidates, including for the post of Mayor of Gurugram, which settled into a first direct contest – with the BJP – for the seat.
In response, the BJP unleased top leaders from the state – including Rajasthan Chief Minister Nayab Saini and his newly-elected Delhi counterpart, Rekha Gupta – during campaigning, which included door-to-door visits and grand roadshows. The Congress responded with former Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot and Mr Hooda.
The result, nevertheless, has been one-sided, with the incumbent, the BJP’s Raj Rani leading the Congress’ Seema Pahuja by over 95,000 votes after six rounds of counting.
Congress Defeated In Rohtak
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.
But it was the BJP’s Ram Avtar that emerged the undisputed winner. He got over one lakh votes, with the Congress’ Surajmal Kiloi a distant second by more than 45,000 ballots.
This result has been seen as a big blow to the Congress, given it is the bastion of senior state leader and former Chief Minister Hooda.
BJP Wins Ambala, Leads Faridabad
In Ambala, the BJP’s Shailja Sachdeva was elected as Mayor. She defeated the Congress’ Amisha Chawla by 20,487 votes. And, in Faridabad, Parveen Joshi was leading the Congress’ Lata Rani.
BJP Ahead In Hisar, Karnal, Panipat
The BJP’s Praveen Popli is leading in Hisar over the Congress’ Krishan Singla.
In Karnal, the BJP’s Renu Bala Gupta is ahead of the Congress’ Manoj Wadhwa.
In Panipat, the BJP’s Komal Saini is leading the Congress’ Savita Garg.
Senior BJP leader Rajiv Jain is leading the Congress’ Komal Dewan in Sonipat.
In Yamunanagar, Suman of the BJP is ahead of the Congress’ Kirna Devi.
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. These include Kuldeep Singh (Faridabad), Vikas Yadav (Gurugram), Sankalp Bhandari, and Sanjeev Kumar Mehta (Karnal), and Bhavna (Yamunanagar) secured unopposed wins from their respective wards.
With input from agencies
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