Punjab rural polls: BJP gets 1 vote in Bhagwant Mann's village

CHANDIGARH: The BJP won only seven of the total 347 zila parishad seats and 73 of the total 2,838 panchayat samiti zones in Punjab’s rural elections. In Satoj village, BJP received just one vote.Asked about the party getting a single vote in his village, Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann said in a lighter vein: “A probe is on to find who was the sole voter.”After scrutiny of papers for zila parishad elections, the saffron party fielded 215 candidates, though it gave tickets to 274. Of a total of 2,838 panchayat samiti zones, its 1,127 candidates were left in the fray, though the party gave tickets to 1,558 candidates.

However, given the history that BJP is a party with an urban base, elections became an occasion for expanding its activities in rural areas where it never went earlier.In contrast to the 2022 assembly and 2024 Lok Sabha polls, when their candidates faced hostile reactions in rural areas, there was no such reaction in these elections. The party pushed in a lot of resources and fielded candidates. The party had limited supporters in rural areas, but it ensured that their publicity material was put up across all the villages, wherever it was contesting, to ensure maximum visibility in rural areas. In Pathankot, BJP won four of a total of 10 ZP zones, while AAP and Congress won 5 and 1, respectively.