The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which governs Punjab, has secured a majority in six municipal councils in Ludhiana district, reinforcing its local government presence despite significant setbacks in key constituency strongholds. The elections, held on Tuesday for 112 wards across the Khanna, Jagraon, Samrala, Raikot, Doraha, and Payal councils, saw the ruling party claim 57 seats. The Congress, the principal opposition, 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 any seat.
Peaceful polling and counting
Narinder Singh, additional deputy commissioner for rural development, confirmed that polling and counting concluded peacefully. He commended voters and security staff for facilitating a fair election.
AAP's overall dominance
While AAP dominated the overall tally, including a landslide victory in Khanna where it won 25 of 33 wards, the results revealed localized vulnerabilities for the ruling party. Several high-profile candidates lost in their own lawmakers' home wards.
Setbacks in Raikot and Jagraon
In Raikot, the Congress secured 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 hospitalized following an alleged assault on polling day, which the Congress blamed on government 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, the Congress defied the broader trend to capture a local council majority.
BJP triples its presence
Conversely, the BJP tripled its previous municipal footprint, improving from two seats in 2021 to six in this cycle.
Razor-thin margins
The election also featured extremely close contests. 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.
