Ludhiana Municipal Corporation election result: Congress sweeps polls with 62 wards; SAD-BJP down to 21

The Congress on Tuesday swept the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation election 2018, winning as many as 62 of the 95 wards. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) managed to get 11 wards while the BJP secured wins in 10 wards. Meanwhile, the Lok Insaf Party got seven wards and the AAP got one.

A total of 494 candidates belonging to the Congress, the SAD, the BJP, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Lok Insaf Party were in the fray. [caption id=“attachment_4262273” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. PTI[/caption] Over 59 percent of the 10.5 eligible voters exercised their franchise in the election for the 95 wards on Saturday amid reports of clashes, alleged booth capturing, rigging and firing during the day-long voting process. Opposition SAD and AAP leaders accused the ruling Congress of malpractices in the municipal election. A SAD-BJP delegation on Monday met Punjab governor VP Singh Badnore and urged him to direct the state government to scrap the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation poll process and hold elections afresh. The delegation led by senior SAD leaders Bikram Singh Majithia, Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Dinesh Kumar and Rajinder Bhandari alleged that Congress leaders “misused” police personnel deployed there, indulged in “booth capturing and bogus voting”, as well as intimidating SAD-BJP workers. The Congress, which runs the government in Punjab since March 2017, had won the municipal elections in the municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala in December. It had also emerged victorious in 20 out of 29 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats. With inputs from agencies