On December 27, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation Elections were announced. Out of 35 seats, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 14 seats. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 12 seats, followed by Congress grabbing eight seats and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) winning one seat in the elections.
AAP contested the civic polls for the first time in the UT. Notably, AAP had decided to contest in civic polls at a much later stage and won maximum seats. AAP candidates were leading in many seats from the beginning of the counting itself.
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who also heads the Aam Aadmi Party, took to Twitter to proclaim that results in Chandigarh are an indicator of an imminent change. He said people in Punjab have rejected corrupt politics and have chosen his party for a change.
“AAP’s victory in the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation points at the imminent change in Punjab. People have rejected corrupt politics and have chosen AAP…Punjab is ready for change,” tweeted Mr Kejriwal, who spearheaded a vigorous campaign before the elections.
The official announcement about the results will be made by the state election commission later today after confirming the results from all the assistant election returning officers (AEROs).
Voting share shows AAP at third place
Though AAP has won 14 seats, when it comes to voting share, Congress stayed at the top. Congress got 29.79% vote share, followed by BJP at 29.30% votes. On the other hand, AAP got a 27.08% vote share, followed by Independent candidates with 7.10% share and others with 6.26% vote share.
In the last civic polls in 2016, BJP had won 20 out of 26 seats. Congress won four followed by one seat each by independent and SAD candidates.