The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the BJP on Thursday won five of the six municipal corporation elections in Punjab. The coalition got a majority at Bathinda, Moga, Pathankot and Hoshiarpur.

An impressive number of Independent candidates won and are likely to play crucial role in the balance of power at Phagwara and at S.A.S. Nagar, where the the alliance fell two short of the half-way mark.

At Phagwara, the BJP won 16 seats while the Akali Dal could manage just nine. The Congress won 14 and the Independents nine, while two went to the Bahujan Samaj Party.

Describing it as a mandate in the favour of pro-people and development oriented policies of the alliance government, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the mandate had once again demonstrated people’s full faith and confidence in the coalition. The results were a “triumph of clean, transparent and good governance over the malicious propaganda based on divisive politics and dirty tactics applied by the Congress,” he said

Congress Deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Capt. Amarinder Singh, said that while the results indicated how the Akalis manipulated the civic polls, the victory of a large number of Independent candidates was a clear signal that the Congress could not hope to ride to power on an anti-incumbency wave.