The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has achieved a significant victory in the recent urban local body elections in Rajasthan, winning 8 out of 10 major cities. This outcome indicates a stable urban voter sentiment, suggesting that there has not been a substantial shift in political allegiance among city residents in the state.
Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma sent out a strong message at the victory celebrations at the BJP office after the results came
“The Congress used to say your kaka ji (uncle) also could not conduct a one state, one election and now who has done this successfully? For an election fought directly under the guidance of the chief minister and monitored closely by the party’s central leadership, the results showed the BJP has held its urban vote bank. A closer look at the number of wards tells another story – the Congress was not too far behind either and a number of independent winners also indicated that it was not a BJP show all the way.
Your kaka ji,” he said, indicating his man-in-charge status who the party had positioned in the centre of this election. “This was the semifinal of sorts and our performance has been good at 60 per cent,” he said.
Compared to the last three local body elections when the Vasundhara Raje government was at the helm and when Ashok Gehlot was chief minister, this is the first time that in terms of vote share the BJP and the Congress are so close. Of the 10,245 wards that voted, the BJP won in 4,179 wards and the Congress in 3,613 wards; independents and others won 2,273 wards, with the Aam Adami Party (AAP) making a surprise entry in Baran district and walking away with 42 winners.
“Let the BJP celebrate,” Congress president Govind Singh Dotasara told NDTV. “Delimitation was done to favour the BJP and we would have easily won more than a 1,000 wards more and now the panchayat elections will also show people the true picture.”
In the 309 local bodies, the BJP polled 37.35 lakh votes, the Congress polled 36.35 lakh votes and independents got 29 lakh plus votes – which means the difference in the vote share between the two major parties is just about 0.94 per cent, less than a 1 per cent difference.
