As many as 80 candidates, mostly from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), have won the urban civic polls unopposed.
Even as the Opposition parties raised questions over these wins, alleging these were orchestrated by getting nomination papers rejected, the data from the State Election Commission revealed that 2,393 candidates withdrew their nomination papers, leaving 7,621 candidates in the election arena.
One of the prominent unopposed winners is ex-Mayor of Bathinda Padamjit Singh Mehta. The Congress candidate’s nomination papers were rejected, while candidates from the other parties withdrew their papers. As per his election affidavit, he owns assets worth Rs 10.15 crore.
In the Faridkot civic body, Satish Kumar of AAP was elected from Ward No. 20. No other candidate filed papers against him. His declared assets stand at Rs 4.16 crore. Former Congress MLA from Faridkot Kushaldeep Singh Dhillon told The Tribune that people feared his son and thus nobody entered the poll fray.
In Sunam, the constituency represented by state AAP president Aman Arora, two party candidates won unopposed. In CM Bhagwant Mann’s constituency of Dhuri, six AAP candidates won without contest.
In the newly formed Barnala Municipal Corporation, the papers of several Opposition candidates were rejected. The Ward No. 44 is witnessing a high-profile political battle, with Hasanpreet Bhardwaj, considered close to MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, pitched against Congress-backed Rajinder Kumar, an associate of MLA Kuldeep Singh Kala Dhillon. Bhardwaj has declared assets worth Rs 2.26 crore, while Rajinder Kumar reported no personal assets.
Information available with The Tribune from the State Election Commission shows that maximum 47 candidates were elected unopposed in the 75 municipal councils, followed by 28 in 21 nagar panchayats and four in the eight municipal corporations. The highest number of withdrawals had been in the municipal councils (1,695), followed by 386 in municipal corporations and 312 in nagar panchayats.
