In a sweeping victory, the Congress party won 24 out of 34 wards in the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) elections held on Tuesday, reclaiming the prestigious civic body from the BJP. Shimla Deputy Commissioner Aditya Negi confirmed that the BJP captured nine wards, while the CPI-M secured just one.
With 34 candidates each, both the BJP and the Congress contested all available seats, while the CPI-M fielded four. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which put forward 21 candidates, failed to secure any wards, and all nine independent candidates were defeated.
This triumph follows the Congress party’s success in the December 2022 assembly polls, where they won 40 out of 68 seats. In the previous SMC elections held in 2017, the BJP had seized the civic body from Congress for the first time in 32 years, winning 17 wards. At that time, the Congress secured 12 wards, the CPI-M one, and independent candidates captured the remaining four.
The Congress party’s success in the recent election can be attributed to several factors, including the Old Pension Scheme (OPS) implementation, which appealed to the SMC’s high number of government employees. Additionally, the SMC area comprises assembly constituencies of two cabinet ministers, Aniruddh Singh and Vikramaditya Singh, as well as Congress MLA Harish Janartha.
The SMC elections saw a 59% voter turnout, a 1.2% increase from the 2017 polls. A total of 55,662 votes were cast, including 277 postal ballots. Following the results, celebrations erupted outside the counting centre and Congress offices, with supporters welcoming the winners and distributing sweets.
Himachal Congress chief Pratibha Singh expressed gratitude to voters and party workers for the resounding victory, noting that this win serves as a positive sign for the party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, BJP candidate Kiran Baba from Boileauganj ward alleged EVM tampering and stated her intention to take the matter to court.