In a jolt to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its ally Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), the combine suffered a blow in the municipal corporation elections by losing mayoral polls in two municipal corporations even though it managed to win one civic body. The results for these polls were announced today.

The ruling coalition has lost mayoral polls in Sonipat and Ambala, which were projected as a prestige battle a year after the state Assembly elections. The ruling alliance is led by chief minister and BJP leader Manohar Lal Khattar.

Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala’s JJP lost these civic polls in its home turf ~ Hisar’s Ukalana ~ and Rewari’s Dharuhera.

The civic body elections in Ambala, Panchkula, Sonipat, Rewari’s Dharuhera, Rohtak’s Sampla, and Hisar’s Uklana were held on Sunday. The counting of votes began this morning.

The principal Opposition Congress won Sonipat by a margin of nearly 14,000 votes. Nikhil Madaan will be Sonipat’s first mayor.

In Ambala, Haryana Janachetana Party’s Shakti Rani Sharma is set to be the mayor after she won by over 8,000 votes. She is the wife of HJP chief Venod Sharma, an ex- Congress leader and former Union minister. Their son Manu Sharma was convicted in the Jessica Lal murder case. The BJP won the post in the Panchkula Municipal Corporation. The BJP’s Kulbhushan Goyal won the Panchkula mayor election by defeating the Congress’s Upinder Kaur Ahluwalia by a margin of 2,057 votes. Goyal got 49,860 votes, while Ahluwalia polled 47,803 votes.

These polls were held amid the raging farmers’ agitation against the BJP-led Centre’s controversial farm laws. Thousands of farmers from Punjab and Haryana and other states have been holding protests at Delhi’s borders on this issue for more than a month amid bitter cold.

The farmers’ agitation has put Dushyant Chautala’s JJP in a bind after the Akali Dal in September quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to protest the Narendra Modi government’s contentious legislations, which the government says aim to bring long-pending reforms in the sector. Farmers have maintained that these agri laws will leave them at the mercy of corporates and private players.

The Haryana Deputy CM is the grandson of farmers’ leader and INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, who has been in jail for corruption. Dushyant had earlier claimed that he would quit if he is not able to ensure the minimum support price (MSP) for farmers’ produce ~ a key demand of protesters.

This was the second defeat suffered by the BJP-JJP alliance since they came to power in the state in October 2019.

Last month, the Congress’s candidate Indu Raj Narwal defeated his nearest rival and BJP nominee Yogeshwar Dutt in the Baroda Assembly seat with a margin of over 10,000 votes.