BSP chief Mayawati on Tuesday alleged that many of her party candidates were “forcibly defeated” in the Rajasthan urban local body elections by a margin of just a few votes due to “irregularities in the government machinery”.
The ruling BJP on Monday won 4,179 wards against the Congress’ 3,613, securing clear majorities in four of the state’s 10 municipal corporations – Jaipur, Udaipur, Kota, and Bhilwara.
Election verdicts across the spectrum
The BSP and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) won one ward each. The Congress secured a majority in the Bikaner Municipal Corporation and scored a major victory in the municipal council in Jhalawar, considered a stronghold of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje. In a post on X in Hindi on Tuesday, Mayawati said, “In the urban local body elections held in Rajasthan, the BSP has also succeeded this time by getting its councillors elected to 19 seats, and many candidates were forcibly defeated in the recount by a margin of just a few votes due to irregularities in the government machinery; otherwise, the party could have achieved an even better result here.
Independents emerged as a major force by winning 2,273 wards and dominating the verdict in the municipal corporation in Bharatpur, the hometown of Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, where they bagged 36 of the 65 wards. Bharatpur gave one of the most striking verdicts of the elections as Independents won 36 of the 65 wards, while the BJP managed 20 and the Congress seven.
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister further said, “Before this, in the local body elections held in Punjab and some other states of the country as well, the party achieved better results than before,” she said.
