BJP wins five cities in Haryana Municipal Elections

Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) registered victory in Haryana municipal elections held on December 16, 2018 and the result was declared on December 19, 2018.

The polls for Mayor seats took place in five towns–Rohtak, Karnal, Hisar, Panipat and Yamuna nagar. Dalip Singh, State Election Commissioner stated that overall 69.39 per cent voter turnout was recorded in the elections. Municipal Corporation Hisar recorded 62.7 per cent voting. 61.8 per cent voting was recorded in Karnal, 62 per cent in Panipat, 65.2 per cent in Yamuna nagar and 62.4 per cent in Rohtak.

The ward councillor polls were held for two municipal commitees–Jakhal Mandi in Fatehbad and Pundri in Kaithal district on the sameday. Jakhal Mandi recorded 89.5 per cent voter turnout and Pundri town recorded 82.1 per cent voter turnout.

BJP recorded a massive victory in Panipat. Avneet Kaur, candidate from BJP became the first woman mayor of Panipat Municipal Corporation with highest margin of 74,940 votes among five corporations in the state.

Manohar Lal Khattar, Chief Minister of Haryana said, “This win in mayoral elections is a win of the government’s policies and the party’shard work, especially in Panipat where our candidate won by a massive margin.”

The Election Commissioner said that total 59 candidates including 40 men and 19 women contested election for mayoral seats. 592 candidates including 322 men and 270 women contested municipal corporation elections. Polling was conducted in all 110 wards of the municipal corporation of the five cities and 25 wards of Jakhal Mandi and Pundri.

This was the first time when the mayors of the five municipal corporations were elected directly. Earlier, the councillors used to elect the mayor. The Haryana Election Commission decided to treat ‘none of the above’ or NOTA option as a “fictional candidate”in the municipal polls, making it a must for winning candidates to secure more votes than those cast for NOTA.