Modest victory in Phagwara; BSP gets two seats

Ashok Kaura

Phagwara, February 26

The SAD-BJP has won 25 of the 50 wards in the Phagwara Municipal Corporation. The SAD has won nine of the 15 seats it contested and the BJP 16 of the 31 wards that it contested. The Congress was victorious in 14 wards. The BSP won two seats. Nine seats went to Independents.

The SAD did not field candidates in Wards Nos. 8 and 9. It backed Davinder Sapra and his wife Rupali Sapra (Independents) in these wards. Likewise, the BJP gave up Ward Nos. 29 and 30 for JCT Mills where candidates Husan Lal and Seetal Verma were chosen unanimously. Hence, the alliance claims to have gained a majority with 29 councillors on its side. In Ward No.38, former SAD councillor Ranjit Singh Khurana was elected unopposed. The BJP group led by CPS Som Parkash has emerged stronger. Fourteen of the total 16 candidates who have won belong to this group. Among them is the CPS’s personal assistant Om Parkash Bittu. He has won from Ward No. 10.

On the contrary, the results have jolted the faction led by former minister Swarna Ram and supported by Union MoS Vijay Sampla. Swarna Ram’s son Manjit Lal, who had contested from Ward No. 44, lost to Independent candidate Raj Kumar Gupta, who had Som Parkash’s patronage.

Infighting cost the Congress dear. Two seats where the party had changed the nominations at the eleventh hour were captured by Independents. Anurag Mankhand, a BJP rebel supported by Som Parkash, won from Ward No. 21. Here Vijay Sondhi was allotted the Congress ticket in place of Ashok Chadha. He came on the fourth position.

The Sapra couple fighting as Independents from Ward Nos. 8 and 9 were victorious. While the SAD contestant from Ward No. 38, Ranjit Singh Khurana, had won the poll unopposed, his better half Ravinder Khurana, contesting from Ward No. 37, was not that lucky. But his brother Paramjit Khurana, who contested as BJP candidate from Ward No. 48, emerged winner. Vijay Sondhi (Ward No. 21) and his brother Om Sondhi (Ward 18), Congress candidates, lost by huge margins. Congress candidate Rama Rani Sharma (Ward No.16) and her son Sanjeev Bugga (Ward No. 5) also won.