Chandigarh, March 12 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday swept the Haryana civic polls, with its mayoral candidates winning Ambala, Gurugram, Hisar, Karnal, Rohtak, Faridabad, Yamunanagar, Panipat, and Sonipat municipal corporations. The main Opposition Congress bit the dust even in Rohtak, the stronghold of Bhupinder Hooda. The Congress, which contested the state civic polls on its symbol for the first time, failed to open its account. In Manesar, independent candidate Inderjit Yadav defeated BJP's Sundar Lal by 2,235 votes.

In Gurugram, BJP's Raj Rani secured 270,781 votes, defeating Congress candidate Seema Pahuja by a margin of 179,485 votes, while in Faridabad, Parveen Joshi of the BJP won the seat with 416,927 votes. In Hisar, Parveen Popli of the BJP won by a margin of 64,456 votes, while in Rohtak, Ram Avtar Valmiki of the BJP won by a margin of 45,198 votes. In Karnal, Renu Bala of the BJP won with 83,630 votes, defeating Congress candidate Manoj Wadhwa, who received 25,359 votes. In Yamunanagar, Suman of the BJP won. In Ambala, Shailja Sachdeva of the BJP won the mayor by-election, while in Sonipat, Rajiv Jain of the BJP secured 57,858 votes to win the seat. In Panipat, Konal Saini of the BJP won with 1,62,075 votes.

Elated over the party's major victory, Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini told the media here, "The people of Haryana have put their stamp of approval on the triple engine government... I thank the people of Haryana from the bottom of my heart. Our local body government and this triple-engine government will play a crucial role in fulfilling PM Narendra Modi's vision of 'Viksit Bharat'."

Believing the civic body election results won't have much of an impact on the Congress, party veteran Hooda said, "The Congress must have gained in some areas, but I did not go anywhere during the elections. I don't think these results will have an impact." The BJP's sweep, especially in urban areas like Gurugram and Faridabad, proves its dominance over the state's political landscape that made history in October 2024 by becoming the first political party to win three consecutive terms in the state Assembly elections.

/IANS