BJP sweeps Jammu Civic polls while Congress Loses Badly

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday emerged as a clear winner in the Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) elections with 43 seats in its kitty, bettering its previous strength of 25 in the 75-member body. The Congress suffered a big loss in the election, winning only 14 seats against its 26 in the 2005 civic polls, election officials said. Then it was ruling Jammu and Kashmir in coalition with the PDP. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) along with the National Conference (NC), the CPI(M) and the BSP had boycotted the four-phased Urban Local Bodies elections which were held after a gap of 13 years.