Punjab Municipal Election Results 2021: Cong may get Mayor in Bathinda for first time

New Delhi, Feb 17: The ruling Congress is all set to get its first mayor in Bathinda after 53 years. In Bathinda municipal corporation, Congress won in 14 wards while former NDA-ally SAD has registered win in seven wards.

The Bathinda Lok Sabha constituency is represented by Harsimrat Badal of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which only recently parted ways with long-time ally BJP following the unrest kicked up among the state's farmers by the Centre's three new farm laws.

Following the result, Punjab minister Manpreet Singh Badal said history has been created.

"Bathinda will get a Congress Mayor for the 1st time in 53 years! Thank you to ALL Bathinda residents," he tweeted.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has won five of the seven municipa l corporations in Punjab that went to polls on February 14. The party has won Abohar, Bathinda, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur, and Moga and is leading in Batala and Hoshiarpur.

The counting started at 9 am. Tight security arrangements have been made at the counting centres, they said.

Over 70 per cent of voting was recorded in the civic body elections on February 14.

A total of 9,222 candidates were in the fray for elections to 2,302 wards of the eight municipal corporations of Abohar, Bathinda, Batala, Kapurthala, Mohali, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot and Moga and 109 municipal councils in the state.

As the State Election Commission had ordered on Tuesday re-polling at two polling booths of Mohali Municipal Corporation, the counting for this entire civic body will take place on Thursday.

Of the total candidates, 2,832 were independents, 2,037 from the ruling Congress, while 1,569 were Shiromani Akali Dal nominees.

The BJP, AAP and the BSP had fielded 1,003, 1,606 and 160 candidates, respectively.

The SAD and the BJP fought the elections separately after the former walked out of the National Democratic Alliance over the farm laws issue last year.