Micromanagement helps BJP bag Panipat civic body

In 2018, the BJP had won 22 seats and Avneet Kaur was elected mayor with a margin of 74,940 votes.

In the past 10 months, the BJP has registered victory in the General Elections, four Assembly segments — Panipat City, Panipat Rural, Samalkha and Israna — and now the saffron party has won mayoral poll.

Virender Soni, a political expert, said organisational structure of the BJP was far better than the Congress, which could be noticed during the campaigning.

Despite sure of their victory, the BJP leaders and party workers didn’t leave the ground and contested the election strongly, the expert added.

Even senior party leaders, including former CM and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, CM Nayab Singh Saini, Ministers Krishan Lal Panwar, Mahipal Dhanda, Dr Arvind Sharma and MLAs Pramod Vij and Manmohan Bhadana campaigned on regular basis, he said.

The BJP reached out to voters through committees formed at the booth level and ward wise, Soni added.

The Congress, which contested the Assembly poll with full might in the city, was found nowhere in the MC elections.

The Congress surrendered just before the starting of civic polls in Panipat, he said.

Several other factors were behind the Congress’ defeat, including delay in declaration of candidates and no star campaigner or senior leaders roped in to motivate party workers.