Jaipur, Feb 1 The recent municipal poll results in Rajasthan have set the alarm bells ringing for both the ruling Congress and the opposition BJP, ahead of the bypolls to be held on four Assembly seats.
The results of local municipal body polls for 90 seats were announced on Sunday in which the Congress gained a majority on 19 seats, while BJP got a majority on 24 seats. Independents have emerged as the major kingmakers on the remaining seats.
These results have clearly indicated that the fight for four bypolls in the ensuing months will be tough for Congress and BJP and they would need to work hard.
On four seats where bypolls are scheduled after the death of four sitting MLAs - Kailash Trivedi, Kiran Maheshwari, Master Bhanwarlal Meghwal and Gajendra Singh Shaktawat - in Sahada, Rajsamand, Sujangarh and Bhindar seats, respectively, Congress grabbed its hold on 48 percent of wards while BJP won in 36 percent of wards.
Out of five civic units in four Assembly seats, Congress and BJP gained majority on one seat each while independents emerged kingmakers in two others seats. The fifth seat has gone to the Janata Sena.
Out of 190 wards in these four seats, Congress won 90 wards while BJP won 67 wards. While independents and others claimed 33 wards.
The most surprising results came from Rajsamand for BJP which was represented by late MLA Kiran Maheshwari. BJP here is pondering on why it failed to get a sympathy vote and how the urban vote went to the Congress. Congress won 26 seats here while BJP won 18 and one went to an independent out of total 45 wards here.
Rajsamand had been the BJP's stronghold for over two decades.
Sahada constituency speaks the same story for Congress as Rajsamand is for BJP. Sitting Congress MLA Kailash Trivedi passed away due to COVID recently, however, the party could not get any sympathy vote. BJP won 13 wards here while Congress got 12 wards.
Sujangarh constituency has one council and one municipality - namely Sujangarh council and Bidasar municipality. While in the former, Congress won 26 wards while BJP wrapped won 19 wards and independents won 13 wards, the latter had BJP winning 16 seats, Congress had 13 and independents won 6 wards.
In Bhindar, both BJP and Congress got a shocker as out of 25 wards, 13 wards were won by Janata Sena's independent candidates while 10 wards were won by Congress and BJP won just two.
While BJP state chief Satish Poonia said that the party will come up with a new strategy to win the four bypoll seats, the Congress' Rajasthan in-charge Ajay Maken expressed his happiness on the local body poll results as the Congress has led the show on three seats of four where bypolls are scheduled.
( With inputs from IANS )
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