India, May 13 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintained its hold on the Ambala Municipal Corporation on Wednesday as Akshita Saini clinched the mayor's seat by a decisive margin of 21,358 votes.

The 32-year-old winner defeated Kulwinder Kaur of the Congress, while Independent candidate Sonia Chaudhary was relegated to the third place despite a spirited campaign.

Following her win, the mayor-elect expressed gratitude to chief minister Nayab Singh Saini and state BJP president Mohanlal Badoli, while attributing her success to the intensive campaigning of former minister and two-time local MLA Aseem Goel.

Goel hailed the result as a mandate for development and the "triple engine" government, noting that the chief minister would prior...