Daijiworld Media Network – Chandigarh

Chandigarh, Jul 6: The ruling Aam Aadmi Party registered decisive victories in the municipal council elections in Hoshiarpur and Jalalabad on Sunday, providing a major boost to the party ahead of the Punjab Assembly elections scheduled early next year.

In the Hoshiarpur Municipal Council, AAP secured 35 of the 50 seats, while the Indian National Congress won nine seats. The Bharatiya Janata Party managed to win three seats, with the remaining three going to independent candidates.

AAP also recorded a comfortable victory in the Jalalabad Municipal Council, winning 12 of the 17 seats.

Jalalabad is regarded as a stronghold of Sukhbir Singh Badal and the Shiromani Akali Dal. Badal had defeated incumbent Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann from the constituency in the 2017 Assembly elections before losing the seat to AAP candidate Jagdeep Kamboj in the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls.

Following the results, AAP workers and supporters celebrated in Hoshiarpur and Jalalabad, with the party attributing the victory to public confidence in the leadership of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

In a post on social media platform X, the party's Punjab unit congratulated its workers, stating that the results reflected people's satisfaction with the state government's performance and their continued faith in Mann's leadership.

The latest victories add to AAP's strong performance in the Punjab local body elections held in May this year. According to the State Election Commission, the party won 954 of the 1,977 municipal wards, accounting for more than 48 per cent of the total seats.

The Congress emerged as the second-largest party with 393 wards, followed by the Shiromani Akali Dal with 192 and the BJP with 172. Independent candidates won 251 wards, while the Bahujan Samaj Party secured seven seats.