(MENAFN- IANS) Shimla, May 4 : The less than five-month-old Congress government in Himachal Pradesh on Thursday wrested control of one of India's oldest civic bodies, the Shimla Municipal Corporation, from the BJP, winning 24 out of 34 wards and reducing the opposition councilors to nine from the previous 17.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh, who started his political career as a councillor from Shimla, aggressively campaigned for the civic body that was won by the BJP for the first time in 2017 in 32 years.

"I thank the people of Himachal for their historical mandate to the Congress in the Shimla Municipal Corporation where elections were held on the party symbol after 10 years. This mandate affirms the trust of people of Himachal Pradesh in our government and developmental politics," he said.
Amidst a bipolar contest between the archrivals, the Congress and the BJP, the CPI-M won a lone seat. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) failed to open an account.
The CPI-M won the Summer Hill ward, the stronghold of its student wing the Students' Federation of India (SFI). The CPI-M had won the seat last time as well, but the candidate had joined the BJP towards the fag end of the term.
State Congress chief Pratibha Singh expressed gratitude to the voters for the party's decisive victory. She said the party would maintain the victory momentum in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections too.