Urban bodies’ polls: BJP claims to have won 17 out of 21 posts of presidents

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): BJP claims to have achieved a major success in election to the posts of presidents and vice-presidents in urban bodies while winning 17 posts of presidents out of 21.

Also, in a closely contested election in Gwalior for speaker post in Gwalior Municipal Corporation BJP’s Manoj Tomar defeated Congress’ Laxmi by just one vote.

Prestige of union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar and Jyotiraditya Scindia and a number of ministers from Gwalior in the state cabinet was at stake in the election to the post of speaker as the party had lost mayoral election here.

As per the BJP, those 17 BJP candidates elected presidents in the urban bodies include Prem Jain in Shajapur, Neeraj Manoriya in Ashoknagar, Kusuma Devi in Porsa, Soneram Dhakad in Sabalgarh, Renuka Rathore in Sheopur etc.

Voting is being held every day in the election to the posts of president, vice-president in the urban bodies.

However, the party lost the president post in Damoh which is represented by union minister Prahlad Patel in Lok Sabha. He has taken moral responsibility for the defeat saying, “The result in the election to Damoh Nagar Palika president went against us. I own its responsibility because despite the party not having its majority among councillors it was my consent for contesting election for the post. We failed in manipulative politics and our team will do its best for the development of Damoh.”

As per a report, the party faced defeat in Pathariya too.

Notably, the party is facing a tough challenge in Damoh due to first rebellion by Siddharth Malaiya, son of former minister Jayant Malaiya and then his campaign against the BJP having quit the party.

Talking to media persons here the state BJP president VD Sharma said, “Tremendous victory of the party candidates is a result of the party workers’ hard work.”

He said state Congress president Kamal Nath should not forget that he was an accused in the 1984 riots.

In reply to a question he said Nath believed that Congress alone contributed to the country's Independence but it was not true. Revolutionaries like Chandrashekhar Azad, Ramprasad Bismil, Ashfaq Ullah Khan and Bhagat Singh contributed to Independence. Some anonymous people also sacrificed for this freedom. Every citizen contributed to the freedom of the country.