Chandigarh, Mar 13: Less than six months after securing a dominant victory in the Haryana Assembly elections, the ruling BJP swept the state’s civic polls on Wednesday, winning nine out of ten mayoral seats.
The Congress, aiming for a political comeback after its 2024 Assembly defeat, failed to win any mayoral seat, losing in Sonepat and Rohtak—long considered strongholds of Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The only non-BJP mayoral victory came from Manesar, where Independent candidate Inderjeet Yadav defeated BJP’s Sunder Lal by 2,293 votes in the corporation’s first-ever elections.
Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said the results reaffirmed public support for BJP’s governance. “People have put their stamp of approval on the BJP government’s policies, forming a ‘triple-engine government’ that will accelerate Haryana’s development,” he stated.
The civic polls were held on March 2 in seven municipal corporations—Gurugram, Manesar, Faridabad, Hisar, Rohtak, Karnal, and Yamunanagar—along with bypolls in Ambala and Sonepat. The Panipat elections took place on March 9.
BJP candidates won mayoral posts in Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak, Sonepat, Yamunanagar, and Panipat, securing decisive victories over Congress contenders. Notable wins included BJP’s Parveen Joshi in Faridabad, who won by 3.16 lakh votes, and Gurugram’s Raj Rani, who secured a 1.79 lakh-vote margin.
In Rohtak, a Hooda stronghold, BJP’s Ram Avtar defeated Congress’ Surajmal Kiloi by 45,198 votes. Meanwhile, in Ambala, BJP’s Shailja Sachdeva won by 20,487 votes over her Congress rival.
Haryana Minister Vipul Goel highlighted BJP’s overwhelming performance, saying, “Over 90% of our councillors have won, and our mayoral candidates secured major victories across nine municipal corporations.”
The results dealt a further blow to the Congress, which had already seen multiple defections to the BJP ahead of the elections
