Haryana Municipal Election Results Live: BJP sweeps all five mayoral seats, Khattar hails result

The five municipal corporations where polling was held were Hisar, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak and Yamunanagar, and the two municipal committees were Jakhal Mandi in Fatehabad and Pundri in Kaithal. Polling was held in all the 110 wards of the municipal corporations of Hisar, Rohtak, Yamuna Nagar, Panipat and Karnal and 25 wards of Jakhal Mandi (Fatehabad) and Pundri (Kaithal). 59 candidates, including 40 men and 19 women, contested the election to the seats of  mayor , and 592 candidates (322 men and 270 women) contested the election to the municipal corporation. A total of 89 candidates (35 men and 54 women) contested the election to the municipal committees in Jakhal Mandi and Pundri.

(Photo: AFP)

Heavy polling was recorded in the two municipal committees of Jakhal Mandi (89.5 per cent) and Pundri (82.1 per cent). In the municipal corporations, 62.7 per cent polling was registered in Hisar, 61.8 per cent in Karnal, 62 per cent in Panipat, 62.4 per cent in Rohtak and 65.2 per cent in Yamuna Nagar, State Election Commissioner Dalip Singh said. However, the poll percentage in these corporations dropped slightly in comparison with the elections held last time. 

(Photo: PTI)

The polling was held using EVMs. There was no report on any defective EVM, the state election commission said. Of the 14,01,454 electorate eligible to cast their vote using EVMs, 7,44,468 were men and 6,56,986 women. As many as 1,292 polling stations had been set up, out of which 304 are 'sensitive' and 166 'hyper-sensitive'. Tight security arrangements were put in place for the polling. A total of 7,016 police personnel were deployed for polling duty, the State Election Commission spokesperson said.

(Photo: PTI)

Ahead of the next year's Lok Sabha and Assembly polls, the civic polls are seen as a prestige issue for the ruling BJP. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had campaigned extensively for party nominees in these polls. In Karnal, Khattar's home constituency, INLD-BSP and the Congress had thrown their weight behind Independent candidate Asha Wadhwa. 

(Photo: PTI)

Opposition INLD-BSP, too, had fielded its candidates in the polls but the Congress chose not to use party symbol to contest the polls. It, however, lend support to some Independents. 

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In a first, the mayors of the five municipal corporations will be elected directly. Earlier, the councillors used to elect the mayor. In another significant move, the Haryana Election Commission had decided to treat 'none of the above' or NOTA option as a "fictional candidate" in the municipal polls, making it a must for winning candidates to secure more votes than those cast for NOTA. 

(Photo: PTI)

Even as murmurs were abound about BJP’s ability to pull in votes in the Hindi heartland, the party swept the mayoral polls in Haryana. All five of its candidates won in five cities, some of them with humongous margins.

In Yamunagar, Madan Singh won with 40,000 votes, in Panipat Avneet won by 74,900. Others who won were Renu Bala in Karnal, Gautam Sardana in Hisar and Man Mohan in Rohtak. 

नगर निगम चुनाव-2018 में चुनाव में हुई जीत माननीय प्रधानमंत्री श्री @narendramodi जी की पारदर्शी नीतियों और माननीय राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष श्री @amitshah जी के यशस्वी नेतृत्व में #SaafNiyatSahiVikas के तहत किये जा रहे जनकल्याणकारी कार्यों के कारण संभव हुई है।

— Manohar Lal (@mlkhattar) December 19, 2018

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