Chandigarh, May 30 -- The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) registered a resounding victory in the Punjab civic body elections, fundamentally altering the state's urban political landscape. As vote counting progressed on Friday, AAP candidates comfortably secured over 958 wards out of the 1,977 contested across 102 municipal bodies, including eight municipal corporations. According to the Punjab state election commission data, the Congress remained at the second spot by winning 397 wards, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) secured 192 wards while the BJP managed to win 172 wards. Independent candidates performed fairly well in these urban local body elections by registering victory in 251 wards. The BSP won seven wards. The elections, held via ballot papers on May 26, recorded a voter turnout of 63.94%. A total of 7,554 candidates were in the fray across eight major municipal corporations - Mohali, Bathinda, Abohar, Barnala, Kapurthala, Moga, Batala, and Pathankot - alongside 75 municipal councils and 20 nagar panchayats. While 80 candidates were elected unopposed, the active contests revealed deep political shifts. The landslide victory sparked immediate celebrations at AAP offices across Punjab, with workers dancing to the beats of "dhol" and distributing sweets. The results of the civic body elections, being widely seen as the semi-final before the Punjab assembly polls, due early next year, is a major boost to the party, which emerged dominant across most of the municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats. In the eight municipal corporations, the AAP won decisively in Mohali, Bathinda, Moga, Barnala and emerged as largest party in Batala and Pathankot, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won the Abohar corporation, while the Congress bagged Kapurthala. Chief minister Bhagwant Mann termed the AAP's victory as an endorsement of his government's welfare measures. He said the results showed continued public support for schemes such as free electricity, education, healthcare and employment initiatives. The people of Punjab have defeated the opposition's politics of hatred, he said. Taking a swipe at the recent Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids on AAP leaders, Mann said that the "ED politics" of the BJP had failed in Punjab, claiming that 1,142 BJP candidates lost their security deposits. Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring accused the AAP of abusing official machinery during the municipal elections. He congratulated the party workers for their courage in putting up a brave fight against the AAP's "highhandedness". Warring claimed that the results were no real indicator of the ground reality in Punjab. Related reports P2...