The Aam Aadmi Party has won 14 seats in the Chandigarh municipal elections, while the Bharatiya Janata Party has won 12 seats, ANI reported.
The Congress has won in eight wards, while the Shiromani Akali Dal secured one seat.
The municipal polls were held on Friday for 35 wards in the Union Territory.
While the party emerged as the single largest party, no party reached the halfway mark in the 35-member House.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal said that his party’s performance was an indication of impending change in Punjab.
“Today, the people of Chandigarh rejected corrupt politics and chose the honest politics of AAP,” he said in a tweet. “This time, Punjab is ready for change.”
AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha said that the people of Chandigarh have given their seal of approval to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s model of governance. “For the past 25 years, either the BJP or the Congress used to win the municipal polls,” he said. “People became disappointed with both parties and defeated them.”
He added that the Chandigarh civic polls were just a glimpse of what was about to happen during the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections. “The people of Chandigarh have given one chance to Kejriwal, and the people of Punjab also will give us one chance,” he said.
The AAP needs the support of a total of 19 corporators in order to be able to appoint its mayoral candidate. The BJP, however, needs the support of only 18 corporators, as the Chandigarh MP, who also has a vote, belongs to the saffron party, as noted by The Indian Express.
To a question on whether the AAP will seek the support of the Congress, party leader and Sangrur MP Bhagwant Mann told the newspaper that it will first speak to its corporators.
Chandigarh BJP chief Arun Sood said that the party would not stake claim for the mayor’s post, according to The Wire.
“We were expecting a far better result since BJP had delivered in Chandigarh,” he said. “While we will sit and find out the reasons behind our not-so-good performance. We will not stake claim for mayorship and sit in opposition.”
The AAP had contested the elections for the first time. Its candidate, Damanpreet Singh, defeated the sitting BJP mayor Ravi Kant Sharma, PTI reported. Another AAP candidate, Jasbir Singh, defeated former mayor and BJP candidate Davesh Moudgil from ward number 21.
Damanpreet Singh credited Chandigarh AAP leader Pradeep Chhabra and Kejriwal for his win. “Work is always appreciated and it has paid dividends today,” he said, according to PTI.
Previously, the BJP held a majority in the Chandigarh municipal corporation. In the last elections, it had won 20 seats, while the Congress had only won one seat.
Before the 2021 civic elections, the Congress and AAP had targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party for failing to develop the city, News18 reported. They also pointed out the city’s low rank on the Centre’s cleanliness index, Swachh Survekshan.
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