Madhya Pradesh civic polls: BJP set to rule 108 of 133 local bodies, but loses four mayor posts to Cong, AAP
The results for the 133 local bodies — including 11 municipal corporations, 36 municipal councils and 86 town councils — were announced Sunday during the first phase of counting.
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Mayors for 11 municipal councils are being elected directly while the chairperson of the local body will be elected by councilors indirectly in municipal councils. (PTI, file)Madhya Pradesh’s ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised control over 100 of 133 local bodies, the poll results for which were announced Sunday. But the victory was dampened by the party losing its hold over four mayoral posts after winning seven of the 11 Nagar Nigams and winning the other two by a slim margin.
The results for the 133 local bodies — including 11 municipal corporations, 36 municipal councils and 86 town councils — were announced Sunday during the first phase of counting. The second phase of counting will be held on July 20.
Mayors for 11 municipal councils are being elected directly while the chairperson of the local body will be elected by councilors indirectly in municipal councils. Of the 11 municipal corporations, the BJP won the mayor’s seat in seven. Congress got three mayor’s posts and Aam Aadmi Party one.
With the counting underway until late Sunday evening, the BJP was comfortably headed towards establishing its rule in 10 of the 11 municipal corporations, 31 of the 36 municipal councils and 67 of the 86 town councils. With BJP having the majority of councilors in most local bodies, it is set appoint a chairperson in them.
Assaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM also debuted with a four of its four councillors winning. Of these, two are in Jabalpur, one each in Burhanpur and Khandwa corporations. Similarly, 14 of AAP’s candidates emerged victories while Rani Aggarwal bagged the mayoral seat in Singrauli municipal corporation.
Congress candidates were elected as mayors in Gwalior, Chhindwara and Jabalpur. But even with that, the party will only be establish its rule in Chhindwara municipal corporation, with its elected councillors falling short of the majority mark in the corporation.
Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan held a press conference and reasoned that even though Congress won three Municipal Corporations and AAP won in Singrauli, the saffron party holds the majority of wards which is the true picture. “Despite AAP victory in Singrauli municipal corporation, out of the 45 wards, 23 went to the BJP, Congress got 12 and AAP won on five,” said Chouhan.
He continued, “In the local body polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious on 80 percent of the seats unlike the earlier trend where vote share was always between 45-55 percent.”
Calling the mandate clear and decisive, Chouhan said that out of the 36 municipal councils, the BJP’s councillors secured a clear majority on 27 while Congress had majority in four councils while five other councils had other parties. “We will not only form councils in these 27 but also in the five councils that have other parties,” said Chouhan.
By winning three of the 11 mayoral seats, the Congress has improved on its tally from the previous civic polls — zero.
The ruling BJP which held all 16 Municipal corporations in 2014 civic polls landed a comfortable victory in five Municipal bodies including Bhopal, Indore, Khandwa, Sagar and Satna while in Ujjain and Burhanpur, the party struggled and won with a close margin.
Congress’ Mahesh Parmar put up a tough fight in Ujjain but lost to BJP’s Mukesh Tatwal with a narrow margin of over 736 votes. Tatwal secured 1,34,094 votes while Mahesh secured 1,34,094 votes in the recounting.
Similarly in Muslim-dominated Burhanpur, where AIMIM had pitted its Muslim mayoral candidate, BJP emerged victorious with 548 votes. BJP’s Madhuri Patel defeated Congress’ Shahnaj with a narrow margin while AIMIM’s third position with over 10,000 votes.
In Indore and Khandwa, the BJP bagged both the seats with a thumping majority. Indore’s BJP mayoral candidate Pushpamitra Bhargav won with a margin of 1,33,497 votes while in Khandwa, BJP’s Amruta Yadav won with a margin of 19,765 votes.
AAP Rani Aggarwal won with 9,352 votes trouncing the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Chandrapratap Vishwakarma. Aggarwal, who became Zila Panchayat member in 2014, contested the 2018 assembly election from Singrauli seat, and secured third position with 22 % vote share.
In Jabalpur, Congress won with a margin of over 44,000 votes, in Gwalior the margin is over 26,000 votes while in Chhindwara the margin is 3852 votes.
Interestingly, in Jabalpur, BJP’s mayoral candidate Dr. Jitendra Jamdar lost from its own booth.
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Calling it a historic victory for Congress, State President, Kamal Nath said, “It is for the first time since 2009, there will be three congress mayors out of the 11 municipal corporations. The Congress has snatched three seats from BJP, in two seats we lost with slim margin. I want to ask the BJP, what exactly are they celebrating for?” Nath questioned, adding it is people’s victory against BJP’s misuse of power, money and police.
Meanwhile, Nath pointed out that even in Indore and Bhopal where they have lost, the number of councillors in wards have doubled. “The BJP and its B team of AIMIM tried their best and even then, the Congress gave a tough fight in Burhanpur and lost with a narrow margin of 300 votes. Even in a place like Ujjain it was a close fight with merely a difference of 700 votes between the BJP and Congress candidates.”
Nath added that people have chosen Congress despite the power of money, police being used by the BJP. “Despite fielding candidates in many corporations including Jabalpur, AIMIM managed to get merely 10,000 votes in Burhanpur.”
Congress leaders added that it is after 57 years that Congress will have a mayor in Gwalior while it will hold Jabalpur Municipal Corporation after 23 years.
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