The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Jannayak Janta Party alliance in Haryana secured the president’s post in 25 out of the 46 municipal bodies in the State on Wednesday. Polls to elect 888 ward members and presidents of 46 municipal bodies — 28 committees and 18 councils — were held on June 19.
Hoping for an electoral bounce after sweeping to power in neighbouring Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party, contesting civic polls for the first time in Haryana, managed a win in Ismailabad, its first electoral victory in the State. The Congress, the principal Opposition party, had opted to skip the polls.
As many as 19 Independents won the elections to president posts of different councils and committees. The Indian National Lok Dal was unimpressive, picking up the lone president’s post of Mandi Dabwali municipal council in Sirsa, its stronghold.
The elections to the posts of presidents of the municipal bodies were held directly for the first time with the voters casting votes for the ward member as well as the president. Earlier the presidents were elected by the winning ward members from among themselves.
AAP Rajya Sabha MP and Haryana in-charge Sushil Gupta, in a tweet, described the results as “the rise of AAP in Haryana too”. Terming the Ismailabad victory a “good beginning”, senior AAP leader Anurag Dhanda said the party had put up a good fight and lost the election to the post of president of three municipal bodies — Gharaunda, Pheowa and Kundli — by a margin of less than a hundred votes.
The party also stood second in the Bhiwani and Sohna presidential polls. Admitting that the 10% vote share of the party was a tad short of their expectations of around 14%-15%, Mr. Dhanda however expressed satisfaction with the results. “The Ismailabad win is an opportunity for us to show our style of functioning,” he said.
AAP performed well in areas bordering Punjab such as Ambala, Panchkula, Yamunanagar, Karnal and Kaithal, the traditional strongholds of the BJP. The party, however, fell short of expectations in Jind, Sirsa, Fatehabad and Hisar. “Our performance was not on expected lines in the party’s West Zone,” said Mr. Dhanda. Later in the day, AAP dissolved its West Zone units at district and Assembly levels with immediate effect
‘Agnipath referendum’
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal told a news channel that the protests against the Agnipath recruitment scheme had no impact on the results and congratulated the winning candidates. He also sought to make light of AAP’s victory saying that Ismailabad was a newly constituted municipal committee and the smallest one.
Interestingly, the ruling alliance won all the three municipal president elections in Muslim-dominated Nuh district. The JJP, however, lost the elections to president posts in both Narwana and Uchana municipal bodies in its traditional bastion.
Taking a dig at the ruling alliance, Haryana Congress president Udit Bhan, in a press statement, said the BJP-JJP failed to sweep the polls even though they were the only one running the race. “The results show that people did not want to vote for the ruling coalition even if they are the only option,” he said.
