Ludhiana municipal polls: Holi comes early for Congress as it sweeps to power with 62 seats

The Congress supporters celebrated the party’s resounding victory in Ludhiana municipal elections. (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

Two months after sweeping municipal elections in Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala, the Congress on Tuesday continued its winning streak by wresting control of the cash-rich Ludhiana Municipal Corporation from the BJP-SAD alliance.

The Congress, which runs the government in Punjab since March 2017, won as many as 62 wards, while the SAD and BJP were relegated to the second and third position, winning 11 and 10 wards, respectively.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh congratulated Congress workers for leading the party to a landslide victory. “The results are a further vindication of our programmes and policies, it reflects the confidence of the people in our government,” he tweeted.

Congratulations to all @INCPunjab workers for leading the party to a sweeping victory, winning 62 out of 95 seats, in the #Ludhiana MC polls. The results are a further vindication of our programmes and policies, it reflects the confidence of the people in our government.

— Capt.Amarinder Singh (@capt_amarinder) February 27, 2018

The Lok Insaf Party managed to secure 7 seats while Aam Aadmi Party could only win a seat. The LIP and AAP were in alliance for the municipal elections. Independent candidates won 4 wards.

Balwinder Kaur, who contested from ward number 11, was the lone winner from the AAP. She defeated Congress candidate with a margin of more than a thousand votes.

Rashi Aggarwal of Congress won from ward no 81 (Express Photo by Gurmeet Singh)

In a statement welcoming the poll results, Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar and Cabinet Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu also lauded the performance of the party in the MC polls, which they said marked the total annihilation of the opposition parties in the state.

The Congress party had also emerged victorious in 20 out of 29 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.

A total of 494 candidates contested for the 95 municipal wards. Over 59 percent of the 10.5 eligible voters exercised their franchise in the election for 95 wards on Saturday amid reports of clashes, alleged booth capturing, rigging and firing during the day-long voting process. Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal and Aam Aadmi Party leaders accused the Congress of malpractices in the municipal election.

The Punjab Election Commission had ordered repolling in two booths of wards number 44 on account of bogus voting and booth capturing. Re-polling was held in booth numbers 2 and 3 of ward number 44 from 8 am to 4 pm Monday.

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