Chandigarh: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday swept the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation elections by winning 20 of the 26 seats, thus retaining its control over the civic body.
The Corporation went to the polls on Sunday and the counting of ballots was held yesterday.
The Congress, which had won nine seats in the 2011 polls, was reduced to four seats, with all its former mayors — Subhash Chawla, Harphool Kalyan, Poonam Sharma and Kamlesh— facing defeat.
However, the BJP managed to win only one of the four seats it contested jointly with its ally Shiromani Akali Dal. BJP rebel Dalip Sharma won as an independent.
BJP's sitting Mayor Arun Sood defeated his nearest rival Rajesh Sharma of the Congress by 2,077 votes.
Among the other prominent losers were local Congress President Pardeep Chhabra's wife Ritu Chhabra, local SAD President Jagjit Singh Kang's wife Inderjit Kaur, BSP's City President Jagir Singh and sitting Councillor Saurabh Joshi of the BJP.
The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) failed to open its account. It lost on all the 17 seats it contested.
