While the municipal corporation (MC) elections witnessed a decisive victory for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a total of 719 voters exercised the None of the Above (NOTA) option across the city’s 50 wards. Ward number 17, reserved for SC women, recorded the highest number of NOTA votes at 44, followed by ward 4 (37), ward 5 (28), ward numbers 31 and 40 (25 each), ward 9 (22), wards 11 and 23 (21 each) and ward 21 (19).
The elections also saw 27 women candidates winning seats in the 50-member MC, giving women a majority presence in the House. Under the reservation roster, 22 wards were reserved for women candidates and three wards (5, 17 and 29) were reserved for scheduled caste (SC) women. Two women emerged victorious from unreserved wards, taking the total number of elected women to 27. Congress candidate Anuradha Anand won ward 12 by a margin of 829 votes, while AAP’s Kamaljit Kaur secured ward 40 with a margin of 363 votes.
Among the women winners, AAP accounted for 17 councillors, Congress eight and the BJP two. Notably, AAP’s Dr Akshita Sharma retained ward 14 for the second consecutive term, defeating Poonam of Congress by 882 votes.
Four-cornered contest in ward 1
Ward 1 witnessed one of the closest battles as Congress’ Kanwarbir Singh Sidhu secured 750 votes, losing to Independent candidate Paramjit Singh Kahlon, who got 881 votes, by a slender margin of 131 votes. AAP’s Satyajit Kundra secured 333 votes, while BJP nominee Subash Chopra received 204 votes.
