Cong threatens to go to court as BJP gets post-poll advantage

That’s the biggest haul the ruling party has had in the last two decades.

However, Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sachin Pilot was not convinced. He accused the ruling party of using the administrative machinery to “manufacture a majority”.

“How is it possible that in all the four places where results were decided by lottery (Karauli, Dausa, Gangapur and Ajmer), the BJP won? That seems to be just more than a coincidence,” Pilot told The Indian Express.

“Till Thursday, they had clear majority in only 47 local bodies and were the largest party in 15-18 others. So how did they manage to head 87 local bodies?” he asked. “This shows that BJP did not win by popular mandate but through unscrupulous post-poll management,” he said.

But the Congress’s massive loss gave the BJP enough political ammunition to dismiss the charges with ease.

More so, since the debacle came despite a high-decibel campaign — including some unofficial “legwork” by AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi, besides statewide public meetings by Pilot and senior leader Gurudas Kamat.

BJP chief Ashok Parnami said the Congress’s personal attack against Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje over the Lalit Modi controversy had backfired, and the people had responded by giving a resounding mandate to the BJP.

Raje herself found a small ray of redemption in her political home turf Jhalawar, bagging three municipalities, while having to contend with losing the municipal councils at Jhalawar and Baran to the Congress.

In Dholpur — Raje’s home district — the Congress managed to secure control of all three municipal councils. But Friday’s focus was on Ajmer-the parliamentary constituency where Pilot had lost to BJP’s Sanwarlal Jat last year.

A bitter drama played out there till the last minute for the post of Mayor of the municipal corporation. Here the Congress’s strategy to take advantage of the infighting between two BJP ministers — Anita Bhadel (MLA Ajmer south) and Vasudev Devnani (MLA north) — backfired.

Before the counting of votes, BJP leader Surendra Singh Shekhawat — backed by Bhadel – sought Congress support against Dharmendra Gehlot — from the Devnani faction — of his own party, to which the Congress readily agreed. However, after the voting resulted in a tie with both candidates getting 30 votes each, the result was declared via lottery which declared Gehlot winner.

Pilot accused the Ajmer district administration of acting under pressure from Jaipur and rigging the lottery process.

“After the candidate supported by us had won via lottery once, the BJP asked for re-counting and the authorities agreed, possibly under pressure. Again there was a tie and another lottery was taken out,” Pilot said. He said the party had recorded the entire episode and would approach the state election commission, the Election Commission of India and the high court.

However, state BJP chief Ashok Parnami rubbished the allegations.

“The Congress is decimated and desperate. Pilot does not want to own up the massive defeat his party has faced. They said the same thing after assembly elections too when the administration was theirs,” Parnami told The Indian Express.

“If we had used state machinery, why did we lose out in Jhalawar? The Congress in fact indulged in horse trading by poaching our candidate at the last minute. When it backfired, they had no other option but to come up with these ridiculous allegations,” Parnami said.