The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the municipal polls in Haryana on Wednesday by winning the mayoral election to all three corporations – Ambala, Sonipat and Panchkula — in a direct contest with the Congress, and the president’s posts to three of the four municipal bodies. However, the day’s upset came from Uklana. Independent Reema Soni, a 23-year-old student, stunned the BJP by defeating its candidate Nikita Goel by 2,806 votes for the municipal committee president’s post. In Ambala, BJP’s Akshita Saini trounced Congress’  Kulvinder Kaur Saini to win the mayoral seat, reserved for a Backward Class woman. Sonipat saw a high-stakes rematch between the same candidates who contested last year’s mayoral bypoll. Outgoing BJP mayor Rajiv Jain defeated Congress’ Kamal Dewan again.

Massive defeat

In Panchkula, BJP’s Shyam Lal Bansal polled 68,544 votes to hand out a massive defeat to Congress’ Sudha Bhardwaj. In a post on “X”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked the “family members in the State”, and said “this is a symbol of trust the people of Haryana have in the double-engine government”. The results came as a shock for the Congress, which holds Ambala and Panchkula Assembly constituencies. Sonipat, too, is considered a stronghold of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and his family. The BJP also took the president’s post in Rewari municipal council and in Dharuhera and Sampla municipal committees. Sampla falls within the Garhi Sampla-Kiloi Assembly constituency represented by Mr. Hooda, but interestingly, the party had not fielded any candidate from this municipal body.

‘Shock win’

In Uklana, 23-year-old Independent Reema Soni pulled off a shock win despite Chief Minister Nayab Saini’s high-octane campaign blitz. A student herself, Ms. Soni built her campaign around education, jobs, and healthcare — a pitch that clicked with young voters. With no other party in the fray, she also swept up the anti-incumbency vote. Mr. Saini attributed his party’s victory to “unwavering trust of the people in the leadership of Mr. Modi, his public acceptance, and his development-oriented policies”. Mr. Hooda “shrugged off” the Congress’ poor show, arguing it had actually done better than the last civic polls. Pointing to Sonipat, he said: “We got just 25,000 votes in last year’s bypoll. This time it’s around 50,000.” He added that municipal corporations had always been BJP strongholds.