The Congress on Tuesday won most seats in the bye-elections to Zila Parishads, Panchayat Samitis and municipal wards in Rajasthan, PTI reported. The bye-polls for 27 Panchayat Samitis of 19 districts, 13 municipal councils of 12 districts and four Zila Parishads were held on December 17.
The Congress won all the Zila Parishad seats, 16 seats in Panchayat Samitis and seven municipal councils. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won in ten Panchayat Samitis, while one seat went to an independent candidate.
BJP candidates were elected in six municipal wards but the saffron party lost two municipal councils in Baran district, which is Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh’s stronghold.
“The results have proved that the countdown for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Rajasthan has begun,” said Congress state president Sachin Pilot. “Congress has expressed the feelings of the people in the last four years and they have trust in the party.”
Pilot predicted a similar result in the upcoming bye-elections for two Lok Sabha seats in the state’s Alwar and Ajmer, and the Assembly seat in Mandalgarh as well. The bye-elections were necessitated after the deaths of three BJP leaders.
State BJP spokesperson Anand Sharma, however, claimed that the result was good for the party as it had won many seats that were previously held by the Congress.
This win comes close on the heels of the Congress party’s improved performance in the Assembly elections in Gujarat. On Monday, the BJP won power in Gujarat for the sixth time in a row, but by a narrow margin. The Congress made significant strides by winning 77 seats and succeeded in taking over a large part of the rural Patidar-dominated belt of Gujarat’s Saurashtra region.
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