The order is particularly significant for the BJP as it doesn’t have a single MLA in any of the five Assembly segments of Solan district comprising Kasauli, Solan, Arki, Doon and Nalagarh.Had the court not stayed the clarification issued by the state government in 2023 whereby the local MLAs were granted electoral rights in the civic bodies, an additional vote of the MLA would have helped the Congress elevate their supported candidates to the two top posts.BJP-backed candidates have swept all civic body polls across the district and they are now gearing up to elevate their candidates as president and vice-president. Their supported candidates secured 16 seats as against eight won by the Congress-backed candidates in Arki, Parwanoo and Nalagarh MCs besides Kandaghat Nagar Panchayat. One seat was won by an Independent candidate.The situation was particularly grim in Arki and Parwanoo MCs where the difference of seats between the two parties was barely one.While BJP-supported candidates won four seats in Arki MC, Congress-backed candidates secured three. Similarly in Parwanoo, BJP-supported candidates won five seats as against four secured by Congress-backed candidates.
मुख्य विवरण
Both these civic bodies were held by the Congress-backed candidates in the outgoing House.BJP-backed candidates won with a clear majority in Nalagarh MC and Kandaghat nagar panchayat where the two Congress MLAs Hardeep Bawa and DR Shandil failed to put up a formidable contest.Rattan Pal, district BJP president, while welcoming the court’s order said the court has upheld the people’s mandate and they were gearing up to elevate their supported candidates in all civic bodies across the district. He added that grant of voting rights to the MLAs would have damaged the prospects of their supported candidates in Arki and Parwanoo. He thanked the court for staying the state government’s clarification issued to obtain an undue advantage in the civic bodies.While the BJP was treading cautiously to hold its flock together in all civic bodies, the Congress was eyeing vulnerable candidates. The drubbing received by the Congress-supported candidates in the district also reflected the poor election management and declining influence of its five MLAs in all the Assembly segments.