Jolt to BJP in Haryana local body polls, Independents win most seats

CHANDIGARH:  The outcome of the Haryana Zila Parishad elections has come as a wake-up call for the BJP ahead of the 2024 Assembly polls. The party has won only 22 of the 102 seats it contested, while the AAP bagged 15 and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) got 12 seats. 

The Congress and the BJP’s ally, Jannayak Janata Party, did not contest these elections on their party symbols. The focus is now on the over 350 Independent candidates who have won from the 411 Zila Parishad wards. Both the BJP and Congress claim to have a majority among the Independents.

The results were declared late Sunday evening. The BJP did not win a single seat in Sirsa out of the 10 it contested. The same scenario was seen in Panchkula. In Ambala, the home district of state home and health minister Anil Vij, the party could win only two of the 15 seats it entered the fray in. Suman Saini, the wife of Kurukshetra MP Nayab Singh Saini, was defeated from ward number 4 of Ambala.

In Gurugram, the BJP won four out of 10 Zila Parishad seats, while in Karnal, the home district of Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, out of the 25 seats, one each was won by the BSP and INLD and the rest were bagged by Independents. Kaithal also saw a dominance of Independent candidates, who won 20 out of 21 seats, with AAP grabbing one ward. However, in Yamunanagar, Nuh and Kurukshetra, the BJP won six, seven and three seats, respectively.

Haryana BJP spokesperson Sanjay Sharma held that the party has performed well. He added that the party supported 151 candidates who won in 15 districts, while a majority of 126 Independent winners are supporting the BJP. Therefore, out of the total 411 members in 22 Zila Parishads, the BJP has the backing of around 300 winning candidates.

Meanwhile, AAP won six seats in Sirsa and three each in Jind and Ambala. AAP MP and party’s Haryana in-charge Sushil Gupta said the results show that the future belongs to the Aam Aadmi Party. According to political experts, the performance will act as a boost for AAP for the Assembly polls. For INLD, the big win came from Sirsa, which it got 10 seats. INLD leader and Ellenabad legislator Abhay Chautala’s son Karan Chautala won from ward number 6 in Sirsa by over 600 votes. Independent candidates bagged a majority of seats in several districts, including Jhajjar, Hisar, Rewari and Rohtak.