TNI Bureau: Congress suffered a huge loss in the Shimla Municipal polls, which is the worst setback for the party as it had been controlling the local administration since 26 years.

Congress not only lost the majority among councilors body, but also lost the post of Mayor and Deputy Mayor Post to CPI (M). For the first time, the Mayor election was held directly.

Even though, BJP won maximum seats, it could not win Mayor and Deputy Mayor posts. Congress, which earlier had 15 councilors, won only 10 wards. BJP won 12 out of the 25 seats, while CPI(M)won 3 wards.

Earlier, the CPI-M had won 2 seats. This time, two major posts were won by CPI-M in the Shimla Municipal Corporation elections. While Sanjay Chauhan of the CPI-M was elected as the new Mayor beating BJP’s SS Minhas by 7868 votes, Tekinder Singh Panwar also of the CPI-M became the new Deputy Mayor of Shimla beating Digvijay Singh of the BJP by 4748 votes.

However, ruling party BJP smiled at the great loss of Congress as the 26 year old control over one of the oldest municipalities in the country came to an end in the recent polls.