Panchkula, May 29 -- Newly elected Panchkula mayor Shyam Lal Bansal, 71, took the oath of office in the presence of Haryana chief minister (CM) Nayab Singh Saini and other dignitaries at the Indradhanush Auditorium on Thursday. Bansal, a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) veteran and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, defeated Congress candidate Sudha Bhardwaj by a margin of 36,252 votes to secure the post. The ceremony began with Bansal taking the oath, followed by the swearing-in of the 20 councillors. The event lasted around 20 minutes. Neither the CM nor other senior leaders present at the ceremony addressed the gathering. Bansal is the third mayor of the city, which became a municipal corporation in 2010. Former Congress leader Upinder Ahluwalia, who later joined the BJP, was the city's first mayor, elected in 2013, while BJP leader Kulbhushan Goyal served as the second mayor. This time, the BJP improved its performance by winning 17 seats in the House, compared to nine out of 20 seats in the 2020 polls. Congress managed to win one seat, while Independents secured two seats....