Ludhiana: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which also runs the Punjab govt, has secured a majority across six municipal councils in this district, consolidating its local govt footprint despite significant upsets in key constituency strongholds.The elections held on Tuesday for 112 wards across the Khanna, Jagraon, Samrala, Raikot, Doraha, and Payal councils saw the state’s party in office claim 57 seats. The Congress, which is the principal opposition party, secured 36 seats, followed by the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) with eight, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with six, and independents with five.The Bahujan Samaj Party failed to win a seat. Narinder Singh, additional deputy commissioner for rural development, said polling and counting had concluded peacefully. He praised voters and security staff for “facilitating a fair election”.While AAP dominated the overall tally — clearing a landslide 25 of 33 wards in Khanna — the results exposed localised vulnerabilities for the state’s officiating party, with several high-profile candidates losing in their own lawmakers’ home wards.In Raikot, the Congress won an 11-to-4 majority over AAP. The defeat was compounded in ward four — the home territory of AAP lawmaker Hakam Singh Thekedar — where AAP’s Amandeep Singh lost to Congress candidate Jagdev Singh Jagga by 451 votes. Jagga had been hospitalised following an alleged assault on polling day, which the Congress blamed on govt supporters.Similarly, in Jagraon’s ward one — the home ward of AAP lawmaker Sarvjit Kaur Manuke — party candidate Paramjeet Kaur lost by 44 votes to Gurpreet Kaur Tatla of the Congress. In Payal, represented by AAP lawmaker Manwinder Singh Giaspura, Congress defied the broader trend to capture a local council majority.Conversely, the BJP tripled its previous municipal footprint, improving from two seats in 2021 to six in this cycle.Thin marginsThe election also featured razor-thin margins. In Raikot’s ward 13, Congress candidate Amandeep Kaur Grewal edged out AAP’s Sonia by just two votes. In Doraha’s ward 15, AAP’s Harjeet Kaur defeated her Congress rival by seven votes.The largest individual victory of the election occurred in Khanna’s ward 24, where AAP’s Rajinder Singh defeated Congress’s Shaminder Singh by 860 votes, in a contest where 102 ballots were declared invalid.
