Hoshiarpur, July 6 -- The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept the municipal corporation elections in Punjab's Hoshiarpur and Jalalabad. In Hoshiarpur, AAP won 35 of 50 seats, followed by Congress winning nine seats, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) securing three seats, and the remaining three seats were won by independent candidates. The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), which contested 36 seats, drew a blank. Hoshiarpur, which also has an AAP MLA in Bram Shanker (Jimpa), witnessed 60.5% voter turnout. AAP also won 12 of 17 seats in Jalalabad Municipal Council, a region once considered to be SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal's stronghold, the party said on X. Badal had defeated Bhagwant Mann in Jalalabad in the 2017 Assembly elections, while AAP leader Jagdeep Kamboj managed to defeat the SAD chief by a margin of 30,930 votes in 2022. Earlier in May, AAP had swept the elections in eight Municipal Corporations, 75 Municipal Councils and 19 Nagar Panchayats. While the Bhagwant Mann government faces trouble over religious issues, the party maintains a strong grip over local bodies ahead of the Assembly elections next year. Congress, which has held up a runner-up position in the civic polls, is also looking to make a comeback in power in the Assembly. The Congress clinched four wards, while the SAD managed to win one seat. The voter turnout stood at 70.02%, with residents turning out in large numbers to elect their municipal representatives....