Shimla: In 25 years, Congress suffered its worst setback in the Shimla Municipal polls for not only it lost the majority among councilors body, but also lost the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor post to CPI (M) for which direct elections were held for the first time.
Congress which earlier had 15 councilors were down to winning on only 10 wards, CPI(M) which earlier held 2 seats had improved their score to winning 3 wards and BJP candidates were declared winner in 12 wards.
In a five cornered contest for the post of deputy mayor, CPI(M) candidate Tikender Panwar was declared winner.
Tikender trumped his nearest rival Digvijay Chauhan of BJP by a margin of 4778 votes. Tikender polled 21,196; Digvijay got 16,418 and in third place was Congress candidate Devinder Chauhan, who polled 13,205 votes.
The seven cornered contest for mayors post was won by Sanjay Chauhan of CPI(M), who beat his nearest rival SS Minhas of BJP by 7868 votes.
Whereas Chauhan got 21,903 votes, Minhas secured 14,035 votes and Madhu Sood of Congress was third with 13,278 votes.
Counting for the 25 wards, mayor and deputy mayors elections that was held on Sunday began early today. Since elections were started for the Shimla municipal corporation in 1986, the only municipality of Himachal has been a congress bastion.
The Sunday poll recorded a high turnout with as many as 64.8 percent voters turning up to cast their franchise on electronic voting machines. Of the total 79,956 registered voters, as many as 51,235 voted in the civic polls.
In all there were 95 candidates in the fray which included 7 for mayors post, 5 for deputy mayors post and 83 contested for councilors in the 25 wards.
Of the 25 wards, 13 were reserved for women candidates for which there were 43 contestants.
With the election to the civic body held a few months ahead of the general assembly elections, much importance was given the polls here that witnessed hectic campaigning.
In the triangular contest,the Congress campaign did see the participation of two union ministers Anand Sharma and Virbhadra Singh, whereas the BJP charge was led by chief minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and CPI(M) roped in its politburo member Sitaram Yechury to hold a public rally here.
Photo: Amit
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
High time some party other than the two stalwarts got a chance to show its mettle …. Well done CPI(M). We have high expectations from you!
People want to see a change as I have said BJP and Congress are sides of same coin in Himachal, for that reason people need a third front. Congress a divided house and Dhumal govt. is bunch of brainless arrogants. Finally people are thinking out of box very good news for coming assembly elections as well.
“brainless arrogants”. I like that and fully agree with your term.
HP CPM unit got some improvement, this is good example. Congradulations.. Congress and BJP are the two side of the same coin, now people got third choice.
The real change because there is no difference between Cong and-BJP
The election of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor is indeed a breath of fresh air. Cool. It would be interesting to know the age profile of those who voted for the two? I would like to believe that more younger people voted for the Mayor and his deputy. Should it be so, and the trend continues in the ensuing Assembly elections, one could look forward to Right people getting elected. Especially Independents. Why should we look for a Third Alternative in the form of a Political Party? Haven’t we seen enough of what these parties do / don’t do once voted to power? It is now upto the new Mayor and his deputy to show that good people can make a difference, on their own.
Now that the CPI(M) has won the battle to the Mayoral and Deputy Mayoral slots in running the local government of the only municipal corporation in the State, the next frame is waging a war on the problems the city faces. Given the lame duck status of decentralisation in Himachal Pradesh to the local governments, it certainly is going to be a very tough call as a critical and delicate balance will require to be maintained between the local government and the state government. Both the Mayor-elect and the Deputy Mayor-elect are young and energetic leaders and one expects that they will learn the tricks of sleeping with the strangers – both congress and the BJP sooner than later. Not only should the councillors give the new Mayor a fair chance of proving himself by providing issue based support, the State Government should also exhibit a positive stance in all fairness so that the problems of the city get addressed in the right perspective.
radee fadee walon k mazee hai ab Mall par b mailenge ab ye jai ho CPIM KEE