The results of the local body elections in Punjab have been very interesting. While the state's ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has retained its dominance in the municipalities, the main opposition party Congress has also shown its strength. The Bharatiya Janata Party has been marginalized in the state, but it has also made its presence felt in urban areas and so has the position of the Akali Dal. There are a total of five cities in Punjab – Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Phagwara – which have municipal corporations or municipalities, while there are 44 municipal councils and nagar panchayats. Although political identification is not necessary for local body elections, there is no restriction on contesting elections by candidates with this identity. From this point of view, the performance of the Aam Aadmi Party has been more or less good, although the Congress has also tried to give better results.
It is clear from the results of the local body elections that the ruling AAP party has not weakened its hold in urban areas, but the Congress party also seems ready to fight it. Of course, at the national level, these two parties are members of the opposition alliance 'India', but in Punjab, these two parties also contested against each other in the Lok Sabha elections in which the Congress had a good success. But the Aam Aadmi Party is considered to be a party of basic urban temperament, in view of which its hold in the urban areas of Punjab can be gauged from the fact that in the Patiala Corporation elections, it has 'broomed' like Delhi. The AAP won 35 seats out of the 45 wards that went to polls for the city's 60-member corporation. Earlier, AAP candidates were elected unopposed in eight wards and elections to seven wards had to be postponed due to some reason.
Thus, the Aam Aadmi Party got a total of 43 seats where its mayoral election is certain. Patiala was considered important because it is the city of the former princely state of Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart Captain Amarinder Singh. His daughter, Jai Inder Kaur, is the president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, who campaigned aggressively in the municipal elections, but despite this, the BJP had to be content with only four seats. As far as Amritsar and Phagwara are concerned, the municipal corporations of these two cities are believed to be occupied by the Congress with a slight lead. The Congress won 43 seats in the 85-member municipal corporation of Amritsar and its local allies in some places. Similarly, in Phagwara's municipal corporation, 22 of its candidates have won. Here it had an agreement with the Bahujan Samaj Party, which got three seats.
But the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections were also very interesting. Wives of two party MLAs were contesting from two wards of the district but could not win. However, AAP has emerged as the largest party in the municipal corporation. In the 95-member corporation of Ludhiana, AAP won 41 seats, while the Congress won 30, the BJP won 19 seats and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) got only two seats. Similarly, in the Jalandhar corporation elections, AAP got 38 seats and Congress won 25 and BJP won 19. The AAP emerged as the single largest party in both the metros but fell short of electing its own mayor. Therefore, there may be confusion among political parties for the post of mayor in these two corporations. But since the anti-defection law does not apply in local body elections, the election of the mayor can be very interesting. Local body elections have their own special significance in Indian parliamentary democracy.
It is not necessary to have elections on party basis because these elections are held to solve the problems of ordinary citizens, in which party ideology is secondary and the candidate's own ability and strength are important. Despite this, if a candidate goes to the elections with the identity of his party, then he prefers to stand on the election symbol of his party on the basis of its popularity. Thereby, party identity becomes prominent. On this basis, if the local body elections of Punjab are judged, then the Aam Aadmi Party definitely seems to be ahead, but in the municipal elections held in the Chief Minister's district Sangrur, independents have won the largest number. This can give an assessment of the party politics of Punjab. With this, it is also clear that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre will now have to work hard to make inroads into the cities. As far as the Akali Dal is concerned, its position in urban areas has been considered weak from the beginning.