Karnal, May 14 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) maintained its hold on the Ambala Municipal Corporation (MC) on Wednesday as Akshita Saini clinched the mayor's seat by a decisive margin of 21,358 votes. The party bagged 16 out of 20 wards, leaving Congress with only three. The 32-year-old 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 prioritise progress for Ambala, his home district. Data from 16 rounds of counting, which commenced at 8 am, showed Akshita Saini consistently leading every round to finish with 52,794 votes. In contrast, Kaur secured 31,436 votes and Chaudhary trailed with 21,730. The election, held for a seat reserved for the backward classes women category, saw a 53.4% turnout from the 1,98,224 eligible voters who cast their ballots on May 10. In the bypolls held in March last year, BJP candidate Shailja Sachdeva won the post defeating Amisha Chawla of the Congress by 20,487 votes. Earlier, the seat was represented by Shakti Rani Sharma from the Haryana Jan Chetna Party (HJCP), but was elected as BJP MLA from Kalka constituency, which necessitated the byelection. In the 20-ward civic body, ward numbers 8, 14 and 19 went to the Congress while an Independent candidate won ward 15 and the rest went to the BJP. Former senior deputy mayor Meena Dhingra from the BJP lost to Congress' Gunjeet Kaur in ward 8 by a margin of 721 votes. BJP leader Gurpreet Singh Sahni's victory in ward 17 came with the highest margin of 4,406 against Parveen of the Congress. Sobha Singh of the BJP scraped through with a razor-thin margin of just 23 votes against Congress candidate Pardeep Bittu Chawla in ward 13. The BJP took out a roadshow in various parts of Ambala city, where Goel and Saini expressed gratitude to the voters. Congress MLA from Ambala city Nirmal Singh met his winning ward members....