Less than six months after scoring a hat-trick of wins in Haryana assembly elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party swept the civic polls in the state on Wednesday, bagging nine of the ten mayoral seats.
In the outgoing municipal corporations, BJP had its mayors in seven civic bodies.
The Congress, which was looking to turn around its electoral fortunes after suffering a defeat in the 2024 assembly polls, failed to open its account.
The party lost in Sonipat, where it had its mayor, and Rohtak, considered a stronghold of its stalwart and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.
Independent candidate Inderjeet Yadav was the only non-BJP nominee to win a mayoral seat. She was elected from Manesar, where municipal elections were held for the first time.
Celebrations erupted in the BJP camp after the results, with party leaders in Chandigarh and many districts distributing sweets. There were early Holi festivities as jubilant BJP members applied 'gulal' (colour) to each other.
After the results, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini said people have put their stamp of approval on the works and policies of the BJP government and formed a "triple-engine government" which will work at a fast pace to realise the resolve of "developed Haryana-developed India".
Polls to elect mayors and ward members in seven municipal corporations -- Gurugram, Manesar, Faridabad, Hisar, Rohtak, Karnal and Yamunanagar -- were held on March 2.
The bypolls for the mayoral posts in Ambala and Sonipat and the elections for presidents and ward members in 21 municipal committees were also held that day.
For the Panipat Municipal Corporation, polling was held on March 9 to elect the mayor and 26 councillors.
According to the results available for the mayoral posts, BJP candidates registered emphatic wins in Ambala, Faridabad, Gurugram, Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak, Sonipat, Yamunanagar and Panipat defeating their nearest Congress rivals.
In Manesar, Independent candidate Inderjeet Yadav defeated her nearest BJP rival Sunder Lal by a margin of 2,293 votes to become the corporation's first-ever mayor.
Nikhil Madaan was the outgoing Sonipat mayor and a Congress leader. Ahead of the 2024 assembly polls, he joined the BJP and won the Sonipat Assembly seat. Senior BJP leader Rajiv Jain won from Sonipat this time.
In Ambala municipal corporation, Shakti Rani Sharma was the mayor as a Haryana Janchetna Party leader. She too joined the BJP ahead of the assembly polls and won the Kalka Assembly seat. The other municipal corporations where polling was held had BJP mayors.
The mayoral candidates who registered victories with big margins included the BJP's Faridabad nominee Parveen Joshi who won by 3,16,852 votes and Raj Rani from Gurugram who won by over 1.79 lakh votes.
Other notable winners include BJP's Renu Bala Gupta from Karnal and Komal Saini, who won from Panipat by over 1.23 lakh votes.
In Rohtak too, which is considered a stronghold of Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda, BJP's Ram Avtar defeated Congress' Surajmal Kiloi by a margin of 45,198 votes.
From Yamunanagar, Suman of BJP defeated Congress' Kirna Devi by a margin of 73,319 votes to become the mayor while from Ambala, BJP's Shailja Sachdeva won by a margin of 20,487 votes over her Congress rival.
Haryana minister Vipul Goel, while speaking during the ongoing budget session of the state assembly here, said, "Our mayoral candidates have registered wins with a big majority in nine municipal corporations."
Goel also said the Faridabad Mayor candidate has won by the highest vote margin.
"More than 90 percent of our councillors have also won in the polls," he said.
The results have dealt another blow to the Congress which saw workers and leaders in districts switching over to the BJP ahead of the elections.
The party state unit has been, in the past, plagued with infighting and factionalism unlike the BJP, which has a well-organised and strong organisational structure at the grassroots level.
Chief Minister Saini said people have put their stamp of approval on the works and policies of the BJP government.
The "triple engine government", a reference to the saffron party being in power at the Centre, in the state as well as in the civic bodies, will undertake development at three times fast pace to realise the resolve of a "Viksit Haryana-Viksit Bharat", he told reporters on the sidelines of the ongoing state assembly session.
In a statement in the assembly, Saini expressed heartfelt thanks to the people of Haryana. He also thanked the State Election Commission for conducting smooth and peaceful elections.
The chief minister said for non-stop development, the people of the state have given a "third engine to the urban bodies".
"The results prove that people of Haryana want development and they have given their vote for good governance," Saini said.
With the resolve of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas, Sabka Prayaas and the mantra of Haryana Ek-Haryanvi Ek, we are committed to taking the state to new heights", Saini said.
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