Shimla: After the results of the Urban Local Body elections were announced on Monday, both the ruling and the opposition parties started staking claim of electoral victory of their party supported candidates.
This comes days ahead of the Panchayati Raj elections that are scheduled to be held in three phases on 17, 19 and 21 January.
For both the parties, these elections are important to prove their popularity among the masses at the grass root level considering the fact that the state will go to assembly polls by the end of next year.
BJP-led state government headed by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur claimed that the BJP supported candidates have won majority of wards in these Urban Local Bodies.
He said that BJP supported candidates had won 22 Nagar Parishads out of 29 and 18 Nagar Panchayats out of 21 which vindicate the faith of the people in the policies and programmes of the present state Government, who initiated numerous welfare schemes and development-oriented projects in the state.
Congress veteran leader and six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh upbeat of the performance of Congress backed candidates in the ULB elections, hope that a similar trend is repeated in the Panchayati Raj elections.
The win of the majority of Congress-supported candidates in the ULBs, he said, was the people’s mandate against the anti-people policies of the BJP governments at the Centre and the state.
“The Congress Party will win the 2022 assembly elections and form the government”, he added.
Elections had been held for 263 members of 29 Municipal Councils and 153 members of 21 Nagar Panchayats.
More than 3.10 lakh voters were registered, out of which around 73 percent voters had exercised their franchise.
