SAD-BJP fails to get majority

Rajmeet Singh

Tribune News Service

Mohali, February 26

The SAD-BJP alliance failed to get a clear majority in the Mohali Municipal Corporation polls though it emerged as the single largest group with 22 seats in the results declared here today.

As many as 190 candidates contested the elections for 50 wards of the corporation on February 22. The result of Ward No. 47 was not declared due to a pending court case.

Factionalism in the SAD led rebel Akali leaders to contest as Independents and saw them win on 13 seats. The SAD-BJP alliance fell four short of the required majority of 26. In two of the wards, Akali candidates were pitched against BJP candidates.

The Congress, which had fielded candidates on all 50 seats, managed to get the second largest share of 14 seats while the remaining went into the kitty of Independents, most of them rebel Akalis led by Kulwant Singh, an expelled builder-turned-Akali leader who had fought on the party ticket in the last Lok Sabha elections from the Fatehgarh Sahib seat.

Election officials said the SAD alone managed to get 32 per cent seat share followed by the Congress, which got 28 per cent and Independents, who got 26 per cent. Of the total 1,27,816 voters, 77,310 had exercised their franchise.

To get a clear majority of 26, the SAD-BJP alliance will either have to get support from two Independents or the Kulwant group on its terms and conditions. Several aspirants among the winning SAD candidates for the post of Mayor could complicate the problem for the party.