Mohali MC Polls: SAD fails to cross '100' mark on 53% seats
Harshabab Sidhu
Mohali, February 22, 2021:
The recent elections of Municipal Corporation (MC) held in Mohali were proved to be a nightmare for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) as more than 50 percent of candidates failed to touch the mark of a hundred. The party was unable to open its account in the local body elections of Mohali.
SAD had landed a total of 43 candidates in MC Polls out of 50 seats here. The performance of 23 SAD candidates, which constitutes 53 percent, was so low that they got less than 100 votes. There are only three candidates of the party (Satnam Kaur Sohal from ward no 3, Kuldeep Kaur Kang from ward no 5, and Gurmeet Singh from ward no 34) who got over 400 votes. In addition to this, only seven candidates of the party remained runner-up.
The candidate of SAD from ward no 2, Harmanpreet Singh Prince, was the highest vote-getter (747) in these elections. On the other hand, Amit Gill, who had contested elections from ward no 4, got the least number of votes (4).
To boost MC elections' campaigning, the party had also called their president, Sukhbir Badal, in Mohali. Two days before the polling, Badal had addressed a massive rally here for seeking votes from the residents of Mohali.
Betrayal of some candidates was a big factor behind SAD's defeat: Chandumajra
SAD senior leader and former MP, Prof. Prem Singh Chandumajra, who led the party in Mohali MC Elections, said, “When the elections came closer, many candidates of our party had left us following which we had to arrange new candidates in a short period. We also had a few days for the campaigning.” He added that all the opposition parties, including Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, had focused just on SAD’s defeat. Chandumajra alleged, “The Congress has not only captured the booths here but also adopted the practice of ‘counting capturing.’ The electronic voting machines were also opened on February 16, but the results were declared on the next day. These types of practices by the Congress also changed the whole image of MC results.”
He said the party had supported the independent candidates in seven wards here by discussing with the residents, due to which no candidate from SAD contested the elections.
The 23 seats, where candidates of SAD failed to cross the mark of ‘100’:
Ward 7: 16 votes
Ward 8: 4 votes
Ward 10: 17 votes
Ward 11: 17 votes
Ward 12: 68 votes
Ward 16: 22 votes
Ward 18: 81 votes
Ward 21: 14 votes
Ward 23: 20 votes
Ward 24: 12 votes
Ward 26: 10 votes
Ward 28: 15 votes
Ward 32: 49 votes
Ward 33: 75 votes
Ward 35: 15 votes
Ward 36: 32 votes
Ward 37: 50 votes
Ward 39: 14 votes
Ward 42. 62 votes
Ward 43: 86 votes
Ward 44: 53 votes
Ward 46: 18 votes
Ward 49: 96 votes