The mayoral candidate of the BJP won the Ambala municipal corporation and its nominees were leading in eight other civic bodies in Haryana, as the counting of votes for the recently held elections went underway on Wednesday.

The Congress, which was hoping to make a comeback after suffering a defeat in the 2024 Assembly polls, was trailing.

Elections for the posts of mayor and ward members in the municipal corporations of Manesar, Gurugram, Faridabad, Hisar, Rohtak, Karnal, Yamunanagar, Panipat, Ambala and Sonipat were held earlier this month. Bypolls for the post of mayor in the municipal corporations of Ambala and Sonipat were also held.

In Ambala, Shailja Sachdeva, the BJP candidate for the mayor's post, defeated her nearest Congress rival Amisha Chawla by a margin of 20,487 votes. In Faridabad, the ruling party's mayoral candidate Parveen Joshi was leading over Congress' Lata Rani, while Raj Rani of BJP was leading over Seema Pahuja from Gurugram.

In Manesar, however, BJP candidate Sunder Lal was trailing Independent candidate Inderjeet Yadav.

Praveen Popli of the BJP was leading from Hisar over the Congress' Krishan Singla. In Karnal, the BJP's Renu Bala Gupta was ahead of the Congress' Manoj Wadhwa.

In Panipat, the BJP's Komal Saini was leading over Congress' Savita Garg while Ram Avtar of the Safron outfit was leading over Surajmal Kiloi in Rohtak.

Senior BJP leader Rajiv Jain was leading over Congress' Komal Dewan in Sonipat. In Yamunanagar, Suman of the BJP was ahead of Congress' Kirna Devi.

Extensive arrangements have been made by the Haryana State Election Commission in coordination with the district administrations concerned to ensure smooth conduct of the counting process, officials said.

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