Saffron splash in Haryana, BJP wins 9 of 10 MCs

It was yet another saffron surge in Haryana as the BJP secured landslide victories over its traditional rival Congress in nine of the 10 municipal corporations where the counting of votes took place on Wednesday.

The BJP won in Ambala, Karnal, Panipat, Sonepat, Hisar, Rohtak, Faridabad, Gurugram and Yamunanagar. Its only setback came in Manesar where party rebel Inderjeet Yadav defeated BJP nominee Sunder Lal. Inderjeet is said to be close to Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh.

In the outgoing municipal corporations, the BJP had mayors in six civic bodies while the Congress held two. The Haryana Janchetna Party was in power in Ambala. Manesar mayoral polls were held for the first time as it was earlier part of the Gurugram MC. The sweeping victory has come just five months after the BJP had secured a hat-trick in the Assembly poll on October 5, 2024.

BJP or party-backed candidates also won a majority of the president posts in the four municipal councils and 21 municipal committees, though it did not contest everywhere on party symbol.

In a major setback for former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on his home turf Rohtak, BJP’s Ramavtar Balmiki defeated Suraj Mal Kiloi of the Congress in the mayoral poll.

In Faridabad, BJP’s Praveen Joshi trounced Lata Rani of the Congress by a record 3.16 lakh votes. In Gurugram, BJP’s Raj Rani Malhotra defeated Congress’ Seema Pahuja. Praveen Popli of the BJP won in Hisar. He was pitted against Krishan Singla of the Congress. Komal Saini (BJP) defeated Savita Garg (Congress) in Panipat and Suman Bahamani (BJP) won against Kirna Devi (Congress) in Yamunanagar.

Victory hues

Majority of municipal council, committee seats too go to BJP

BJP rebel wins Manesar where mayoral poll held for first time

BJP held six of the 9 outgoing MCs, Congress 2 and Haryana Janchetna Party 1

In the two mayoral bypoll, Rajiv Jain (BJP) defeated Kamal Dewan (Congress) in Sonepat while Shailja Sachdeva (BJP) won against Amisha Chawla (Congress) in Ambala.

An elated Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini claimed the people of Haryana had put their stamp of approval on the works and policies of the BJP government. “The triple engine government will work at a faster pace to achieve its goal of a developed Haryana and developed India,” said Saini.

There were early Holi festivities across Haryana as BJP workers applied ‘gulal’ (colour) to each other. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the victory was an “expression of people’s unwavering faith in the development works of the state government headed by Chief Minister Saini. “I want to assure people of the state that we will spare no effort in fulfilling their expectations and aspirations,” the PM wrote on X.