The BJP-supported candidates won five seats and majority in the Parwanoo Municipal Council elections on Sunday while the Congress-backed candidates secured four seats. Initially, the BJP and Congress-backed candidates had won four seats each and there was a tie in Ward No. 1. The fate of Nandini Sood and Minakshi Sharma was decided by a draw of lots, with the former emerging the winner. The BJP, which had failed to capture this key Municipal Council earlier, got a shot in the arm when Congress-backed Thakur Dass Sharma joined the party weeks before the civic body poll were announced. Sharma was among the prominent winners supported by the BJP along with three others, namely Seema Sharma, Ram Dhyan Singh and Rajni Singla.
The winning Congress-backed candidates are Monisha Sharma, Nisha Sharma, Sushma Gupta and Mohan Lal Azad. Former Cabinet minister and BJP leader Rajiv Saizal termed the poll results as a victory of the organisational skills of the party and a vote against the corrupt Congress government. Parwanoo, the district’s most urbanised civic body, recorded the lowest turnout of 69.04 per cent. Of the 3,490 votes polled, 1,875 were cast by men and 1,615 by women.
In the the Nalagarh Municipal Council elections, seven BJP-supported candidates emerged winners while only one Congress-supported candidate could secure victory. One Independent candidate was also victorious.
The winning BJP-backed candidates are Moni, Pawan Kumar, Nisha Bhardwaj, Champa Devi, Rajesh, Alka and Daulat Ram. The lone winning Congress-supported is Sehnaz Baigum while Independent candidate Hina Jain also emerged winner.
The Nalagarh Municipal Council recorded 81.69 per cent turnout. As many as 6,962 voters cast their vote.
Buoyed by the results, former BJP MLA KL Thakur said that people were fed up with the lack of development and the failure of the Congress government to deliver on the infrastructure front. The Congress-backed candidates were ruling the incumbent Municipal Council.
In the Arki Municipal Council elections, the BJP-supported candidates bagged a majority of four seats while the Congress-supported candidates could win three seats. With two candidates receiving an equal number of 83 votes in Ward No. 5, the winner was decided by a draw of lots. Congress-backed Seema Sharma managed to win the seat as luck favoured her.
The winning Congress-supported candidates are Pradeep Kumar, Anuj Gupta and Seema Sharma. The winning BJP-supported candidates are Ranjana, Devinder Kumar, Kiran Gupta and Veena Thakur.
