Tally dips 65%, loses Bathinda MC after 53 yrs
CHANDIGARH : The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has won from only 285 municipal wards against the 813 seats it bagged in the 2015 urban body elections and lost the Bathinda civic body after a gap of 53 years.
The party won from 33 wards in the municipal corporations that recently went to the polls. However, its leaders termed as consolation the fact that the party remained number two in the polls the result for which were declared on Wednesday.
In the MCs, the party won from 15 wards in Moga, followed by Bathinda (7), Batala (6), Kapurthala (3) and one each in Abohar and Pathankot. Of these, the SAD was in power in the Bathinda, Batala, Kapurthala, and Moga civic bodies. It failed to get even a single seat in the Hoshiarpur corporation.
The party wrested only two municipalities, Majitha and Ajnala (both in Majha region).
In an attempt to resurrect the
party in Punjab’s political landscape, particularly after severing ties with the BJP, its longtime ally, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal left no stone unturned and campaigned across the state. He was even heckled in Jalalabad.
Party spokesperson Daljit Singh Cheema said, “The Congress
secured a win in the municipal elections by resorting to state-sponsored repression. We must laud the Akali workers for asserting themselves boldly and ensuring we emerged as the main opposition.” It was for the first time the party contested an election after breaking up its 40-year-old partner BJP.