Chandigarh: The BJP suffered a setback in the Haryana Zila Parishad polls winning only 22 of the 100 seats it contested, while the AAP was at the second spot by bagging 15 seats out of the over 100 it contested on the party symbol. The polls, the results of which were declared on Sunday, also saw the Indian National Lok Dal making some gains. The Congress and the BJP's ally Jannayak Janata Party did not contest the panchayat polls on party symbols.
According to political experts, the poll outcome has come as a wake-up call for the ruling BJP ahead of the 2024 state assembly polls. The party, however, claimed that more than 150 BJP-backed candidates also won in the elections in other districts of the state.
The zila parishad poll result came as a shocker for the BJP in Panchkula where it lost all 10 seats which it contested. The party also suffered a setback in Sirsa where it failed to win a single seat out of 10 it contested.
The major embarrassment came for the party after BJP MP from Kurukshetra Nayab Singh Saini's wife Suman Saini was defeated from ward number 4 of Ambala zila parishad.
The ruling party also could not perform well in Ambala, which is the home district of Home Minister Anil Vij, where it could win only two seats out of total 15 zila parishad seats. In Gurugram, the BJP could win four out of 10 zila parishad seats. However, in Yamunanagar, Nuh and Kurukshetra, the ruling party won six, seven and three seats respectively.
Haryana BJP spokesperson Sanjay Sharma asserted that the party performed very well in the zila parishad polls. He claimed the BJP supported 151 candidates won in 15 districts.
Apart from this, Sharma said the majority of 126 independents who won the polls are supporting the BJP. Therefore, out of total 411 members in 22 zila parishads, the BJP has the backing of around 300 winning candidates.
