The BJP on Wednesday swept the municipal elections in Haryana, securing six of the seven civic bodies, with only Uklana municipal committee chief’s post going to a 23-year-old independent candidate. The BJP also delivered crushing defeats to its main rival Congress in the mayoral contests, where victory margins ranged from more than 21,000 votes to over 36,000.Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the results saying it once again showed people’s unwavering faith in the development and good governance policies of the BJP-led NDA government.“This victory is also a symbol of the trust that the people of Haryana have in the state’s ‘double-engine government’,” Modi said in a post on X in Hindi. He expressed gratitude to the Haryana voters, hailing them for the BJP’s “spectacular victory” and also congratulated the party workers.The polls, held on May 10, elected mayors and ward councillors in the municipal corporations of Ambala, Sonipat, and Panchkula, along with the president and councillors of the Rewari municipal council and the municipal committees of Sampla, Dharuhera, and Uklana.The results confirmed emphatic BJP wins in Panchkula, Ambala and Sonipat civic bodies, as well as victories in Rewari, Sampla and Dharuhera.For the mayor’s post in Ambala, BJP’s Akshita Saini defeated Congress rival Kulwinder Kaur by 21,358 votes. In Panchkula, BJP’s Shyamlal Bansal defeated Congress candidate and and former president of the state Mahila Congress Sudha Bhardwaj by 36,252 votes. In Sonipat, BJP’s Rajiv Jain (61) trounced his Congress rival, Kamal Dewan, by 23,247 votes.At present, the sitting mayors in three municipal corporations of Panchkula, Ambala and Sonipat are from the BJP.Story continues below this adBJP also won the president’s post in Rewari municipal council where party’s Vinita Pippal defeated Congress’s Neharika by 21,445 votes.Among municipal committees, BJP’s Satyanarayan secured Dharuhera defeating Independent candidate Babu Lal by 6,236 votes while Congress finished third. Uklana broke the pattern where Independent candidate Reema Soni, backed by Congress and INLD, defeated BJP’s Nikita Goyal by 2,806 votes to be elected presedent.The saffron party clinched the president’s post in the municipal committee of Sampla, a stronghold of former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. BJP’s Praveen bagged the seat by defeating Independent candidate Ankit by 687 votes.Responding to the BJP’s win in Sampla, Hooda said that the Congress had not fielded a candidate there. “As a matter of policy, Congress does not contest elections for municipal committees and Zila Parishads in Haryana,” he said.Story continues below this adThe BJP, meanwhile, also dominated the contest in wards. Of Ambala’s 20 wards, it won 16, in Sonipat it bagged 17 of 22 and in Panchkula 17 of the 20. In a few municipal wards, Congress candidates were even behind the Independents.The win sparked celebrations in the BJP camp, with Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini saying people have put their stamp of approval and reposed their trust in the policies and programmes of the government under Modi’s leadership.Saini hit out at the Congress, saying that people have once again rejected them. “The public no longer trusts Congress and other opposition parties, as they engage solely in the politics of falsehoods. Congress always takes support of lies, people have understood this,” he said, adding the grand old party’s “real face has been unmasked”.On the BJP’s win in Sampla, Saini said, “People don’t trust Hooda anymore. He speaks lies. Our government is working with honesty and transparency, fulfilling the promises made to people.”Story continues below this adHaryana BJP chief Mohan Lal Badoli thanked the voters for reposing their trust in the party. He also said the BJP’s victory in Sampla, a stronghold of Hooda, is indicative of the public mood and outright rejection of the Congress.Haryana Congress in-charge BK Hariprasad, however, accused the BJP of misusing government machinery to secure victories in the civic body polls. “We had already complained to the State Election Commission about discrepancies in the voters’ list. They may have the government, but we will continue to fight them,” he said.For BJP, the victory comes close on the heels of the party’s big wins in West Bengal and Assam. The party also improved its performance significantly. In the December 2020 municipal elections, Congress had won the Sonipat mayoral seat, while BJP, which contested the elections with its then ally JJP, narrowly prevailed in Panchkula. Ambala had gone to the Haryana Jan Chetna Party, BJP had secured Rewari, while Sampla was taken by an Independent backed by Hooda. JJP had suffered setbacks in Uklana and Dharuhera, where Independents triumphed.The political landscape shifted ahead of the October 2024 Assembly polls, with Nikhil Madaan, then Congress mayor of Sonipat, joining BJP and winning the Sonipat Assembly seat, and Shakti Rani Sharma, Ambala’s former mayor, also joining BJP and winning Kalka. These shifts helped the BJP secure a third consecutive term in government. In March 2025, the BJP consolidated its dominance further, winning nine of 10 mayoral contests, with only Manesar going to an Independent Inderjeet Kaur Yadav. Notably, Yadav has also joined the BJP along with several supporting councillors in April this year.