The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintained its hold on the Ambala Municipal Corporation on Wednesday as Akshita Saini clinched the mayor’s seat by a decisive margin of 21,358 votes.
The 32-year-old winner defeated Kulwinder Kaur of the Congress, while Independent candidate Sonia Chaudhary was relegated to the third place despite a spirited campaign.
Following her win, the mayor-elect expressed gratitude to chief minister Nayab Singh Saini and state BJP president Mohanlal Badoli, while attributing her success to the intensive campaigning of former minister and two-time local MLA Aseem Goel.
Goel hailed the result as a mandate for development and the “triple engine” government, noting that the chief minister would prioritise progress for Ambala, his home district.
Data from 16 rounds of counting, which commenced at 8am, showed Akshita Saini consistently leading every round to finish with 52,794 votes.
In contrast, Kaur secured 31,436 votes and Chaudhary trailed with 21,730.
The election, held for a seat reserved for the backward classes women category, saw a 53.4% turnout from the 1,98,224 eligible voters who cast their ballots on May 10.
In the bypolls held in March last year, BJP candidate Shailja Sachdeva won the post defeating Amisha Chawla of the Congress by 20,487 votes. Earlier the seat was represented by Shakti Rani Sharma from the Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP), but was elected as BJP MLA from Kalka constituency, which necessitated the byelection.
www.hindustantimes.com
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