The nine seats BJP had won were – Panipat, Gurugram, Rohtak, Hisar, Karnal, Ambala, Sonipat, Faridabad and Yamunanagar. BJP lost Manesar seat to an independent candidate. The initial assessment suggests that the Congress’ score of zero was primarily due to infighting, and partially due to rise of BJP’s popularity.

BJP registered landslide victories in municipalities of Gurugram, Faridabad, Hisar and Rohtak. The most shocking loss for the Congress came from Gurugram. BJP won this seat by a margin of 1.79 lakh votes in spite of extensive election campaign by Congress. BJP’s winning margins in Faridabad was over 4.16 lakhs; in Hisar 64,456; and in Rohtak 45,198 votes. BJP’s winning candidates in these four important municipal corporations were – Raj Rani in Gurugram, Parveen Joshi in Faridabad, Parveen Popli in Hisar, and Ram Avtar Valmiki in Rohtak.

Congress candidate Seema Pahuja in Gurugram could bag on 91,296 votes. BJP’s Raj Rani bagged massive2,70,781 votes. In Faridabad, BJP’s Pravin Joshi got 416927 votes while Congress candidate Lata Rani got 1,00,075 votes. BJP’s Praveen Popli in Hisar was also far ahead by getting 96,329 as against only31873 votes bagged by the Congress candidate Krishna Titu Singla. Congress candidate Surajmal Kiloi performed comparatively better by bagging 57,071 votes but was also far behind BJP’s Ram Avatar who had bagged 1,02,269 votes.

One important thing to note in all these four important municipal corporations is that the contest was chiefly between BJP and Congress, though BJP was able to render humiliating defeats to Congress candidates.

In Yamunanagar, Suman Bahmani of BJP got 1,26,749 votes as against 53,430 votes bagged by Congress candidate Kirana Devi.

The Congress candidate Manoj Badhwa in Karnal bagged 58,271 votes. BJP candidate RenuBala Gupta bagged 83,630 votes and registered a win by a margin of 25,359 votes.

A by-election was held for Ambala, where BJP’s Shailja Sandip Sachdeva got 40,620 votes as against 20,133 votes by Congress candidate Amisha Chawla.

In Sonipat, Rajiv Jain of BJP secured 57,858 votes, while Congress candidate Kamal Diwan could get only 23,109 votes.

BJP candidate Komal Saini in Panipat bagged 1,62,075 votes as against 38,905 votes bagged by Congress candidate Savita Sanjay Garg.

Thus, the result of the nine municipal corporations where BJP won, the Congress was in contest, though performed very poorly compared the BJP. It is the only hope for the Congress party for its future in the urban areas of Haryana, where the region political parties have very little presence.

However, Manesar presents a real concern for the Congress, where Congress could secure only 5143 votes, and came fourth. An independent candidate Dr Inderjit Yadav won this seat by bagging 26393 votes while BJP’s Sunder Lal Sarpanch could secure 24100 votes. BJP lost this seat by a margin of only 2293 votes. Another independent candidate Vijay Singh got 9163 votes getting third position in the seat.

In overall assessment, it emerges that the BJP has very large support base in the urban areas of Haryana. In majority of the urban areas, Congress is still in contest, though have much less support base than the BJP. It is very serious matter for the Congress that Congress presence in some of the urban areas is very low as, the Manesar election result has shown.

In the outgoing municipal corporations, the BJP had its mayors in 8 of the 10 municipal corporations. This time the BJP has increased its tally to 9, which is a clear signal that the party has strengthening its position, very quickly. How it happened? It was very simple to know – it was simply defection engineered by BJP.

Nikhil Madaan of the Congress was the Sonipat mayor, who had switched over to BJP just before the October 2024 Vidhan Sabha election. He had won the Sonipat assembly seat.

BJP’s engineering defection was not limited to only Congress, it also extends to the regional parties. In present case, we can take example of Ambala municipal corporation, where Shakti Rani Sharma was mayor from Haryana Janchetna Party. She had also switched over to the BJP just before the October 2024 Haryana Vidhan Sabha election. She had contested from Kalka assembly seat on BJP ticket.

In total, BJP had 8 mayors, earlier, and it is only through poaching the rank and file of the opposition political parties it could increase its tally by 1 to win 9 seats. It has a great lesson for the Congress and other opposition political parties. They must protect their flock from BJP’s poaching activities.

Despite a wave in favour of BJP, its leadership has some serious concern. BJP’s loss in Manesar clearly signals it. In spite of Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Saini and Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar campaigning for BJP candidate it lost. The independent Inderjeet Yadav won this seat. It was the first-ever mayoral election for the Manesar municipal corporation, which was formed about four years ago.

Manesar election was significant due to another reason which signals infighting in the BJP. Rao Inderjeet Yadav was former BJP leader who had campaigned for BJP candidate Inderjit Singh in Gurugram during Lok Sabha election 2024, which he had won. Inderjeet Yadav contested as rebel candidate of BJP and won.

Opposition, particularly the Congress, must critically review its loss in the urban areas of Haryana and take remedial measures as soon as possible to save themselves in cities. Unity in opposition rank and fencing against BJP’s poaching their leaders and activists seems to be an urgent need for them. (IPA Service)