Despite presenting a united front, the Congress suffered a major setback in the urban local body elections, the results of which were declared today.
The party lost all three mayoral contests in Ambala, Panchkula and Sonepat by significant margins. It also failed to win the president’s post in the Rewari Municipal Council, while its candidate finished third in the Dharuhera Municipal Committee election.
In Sampla Municipal Committee, the BJP won the president’s post, while the Congress did not field an official candidate. The Sampla civic body falls in the constituency of former Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
The lone consolation for the Congress came from Uklana Municipal Committee, where a Congress-backed candidate secured victory.
“The results was a foregone conclusion. We had highlighted over 17,000 duplicate entries in the electoral rolls of Panchkula Municipal Corporation. It was the same in other places as well. The official poll machinery has been misused,” alleged Congress state incharge BK Hariprasad.
First civic test under
Rao Narender Singh
The elections marked the first major electoral test for Haryana Congress chief Rao Narender Singh, who had succeeded in bringing various factions within the party together.
Unlike previous elections, the Congress appeared better organised this time. Candidates were selected through committees and most nominations were finalised through consensus, leaving little room for the party to blame internal factionalism.
“But even the united face didn’t work for the party,” admitted a senior Congress leader. Rao Narender Singh could not be contacted for comments on the reasons behind the party’s poor performance.
The Congress also failed to convert into political sympathy the controversy surrounding the March 16 Rajya Sabha elections, in which the BJP was accused of engineering cross-voting among Congress MLAs. The party had described the episode as “vote chori” (vote theft), although its candidate Karamvir Baudh eventually won.
Speaking at a press conference in Delhi, Hooda said, “Earlier too, the BJP was in power in these urban local bodies.”
He added that the Congress vote share had improved in Sonepat, where the party candidate secured over 50,000 votes. Hooda also denied that the Congress had supported any candidate for the president’s post in the Sampla Municipal Committee.
“It was a small-scale election. People usually go with the party in power. The BJP was also able to convince people that if they didn’t vote for the saffron party, no development would take place,” another Congress leader said.
Poor ward-wise performance
The Congress performed poorly in ward elections as well. In the municipal corporations, the party won just one ward in Panchkula, three in Ambala and five in Sonepat. In the Rewari Municipal Council, it managed to win only one ward.
Overall, the Congress secured victory in just 10 wards across the state, compared to 68 wards won by the BJP.
