BJP sweeps Panchkula civic polls, Bansal new mayor

Panchkula: Riding on an aggressive campaign led by Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini, the BJP swept the Panchkula municipal corporation polls, retaining the mayor’s post and significantly improving its tally in ward seats.

BJP’s mayoral candidate Sham Lal Bansal (71) defeated Congress’s Sudha Bhardwaj (65) by a massive margin of 36,252 votes. The party also won 17 of the 20 wards, with two seats going to Independents and one to Congress. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) failed to open their account.

In the mayoral contest, Bansal secured 68,544 votes against Sudha’s 32,292, maintaining a clear lead across all 21 rounds of counting. The candidates of INLD (Manoj Aggarwal, 3,465 votes), AAP (Rajesh Kumar, 2,759), and Independents Karnail Singh Bangar (1,188) and Chaudhary Chandan Singh (1,051) forfeited their security deposits. NOTA polled 1,444 votes.

The outcome marks a significant political rebound for the BJP in Panchkula after its defeat in the constituency in 2025 Haryana assembly elections.

Cong, INLD cry foul

Amid counting trends favouring the BJP, Congress, INLD and AAP candidates alleged electoral irregularities. Sudha Bhardwaj questioned the transparency of the process, alleging “open cheating”, while her husband termed the result a “murder of democracy.”

AAP candidate Rajesh Kumar accused the BJP of “vote theft”, alleging a repeat of Chandigarh MC poll tactics, while INLD’s Manoj Aggarwal claimed EVM tampering and irregularities in documentation. All three flagged a reported CCTV outage near the strong room before counting and raised concerns over possible foul play.

Congress also flagged a list of over 8,000 allegedly duplicate voter cards submitted to the election commission prior to polling, which was sent for re-verification.

‘Factionalism hit Cong, not EVMs’

Dismissing the allegations, Bansal blamed Congress’s internal divisions for its poor performance. “The problem is not EVMs but Congress’s factionalism. Despite visits by top leaders, they failed to connect with voters and kept making allegations throughout,” he said.

Celebrations erupted outside the counting centre, with BJP workers welcoming winning candidates with laddoos and firecrackers.

BOX:

Mayor candidates’ tally:

Total votes polled: 110743

Winning margin: 36252

BJP’s Sham Lal Bansal: 68,544 votes (61.89 per cent)

Congress’s Sudha Bhardwaj: 32,292 votes (29.16%)

Indian National Lok Dal’s Manoj Aggarwal: 3465 (3.13%)

Aam Aadmi Party’s Rajesh Kumar: 2759 (2.49%)

Independent Karnail Singh Bangar: 1188 (1.07%) Independent Chaudhary Chandan Singh: 1051 (0.95%)

None of the Above (NOTA): 1444 votes (1.30%)

Factors that helped BJP win:

-The BJP had promised major projects and resolving civic issues in 100 days during the campaigning with manifesto being released by none other than state chief minister Nayab Singh Saini

-Senior Congress leaders, including ex-Mayor Upinder Ahluwalia of Panchkula Municipal Corporation and former president of Panchkula municipal council Manveer Kaur Gill, joined the BJP

-BJP was the only party that announced the names of all the 20 candidates in one go, which helped in clarity and preparations

-It was able to make its disgruntled candidates, who had filed nominations as Independents, withdraw. Ritu Goyal, Sonia Sood, Sushil Garg and Omwati Punia later decided to step down after outreach was led by the CM

-BJP Mayor candidate comes from traders’ community, which forms a major chunk of voters in city

-Prominent faces, including MP Manoj Tiwari, Haryanvi singer Masoom Sharma, several state ministers and senior leaders, among others campaigned for the party

-BJP could beat anti-incumbency by not repeating its outgoing Mayor Kulbhushan Goyal and some of the sitting councillors as candidates this time

Congress lacked here:

-Infighting. Since the announcement of the name of Sudha Bhardwaj, she was considered from the camp of senior Congress leaders Kumari Selja and Panchkula MLA Chander Mohan. And not from Bhupinder Singh Hooda’s camp. Although he had later addressed a press conference in Panchkula

-Senior leaders jumping the shift to join the BJP in the middle of peak of campaigning

-Tuning not well between MLA Chadermohan and four senior most district congress leaders who were served notice last month

-Disjointed campaign

-Flip-flop on selection of candidates

-Congress Mayor candidate claimed frauds in the MC was the biggest poll issue, but it could not be reflected in its campaign

-The Congress’s focus on “bogus voting” and “electoral irregularities” did not click with people

Previous Panchkula Municipal Corporation (MC) election of 2020:

Margin of Victory: 2,057 votes

Winner: Kulbhushan Goyal (BJP): 49860 (48.05 %)

Runner-up: Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia (Congress): 46.07 (46.07%)

BSP: 2378 (2.29%)

NOTA: 1333 (1.28%)

Others: (2.31 %)

Total: 103768

House Composition (Ward Councillors)

20 wards

The BJP-JJP alliance won 11 seats

BJP: 9

Congress: 7

Independents: 2

Jannayak Janta Party: 2