The panchayat raj poll results of 6 districts of Rajasthan declared on Saturday have brought a big relief to the CM Ashok Gehlot as despite internal conflicts the Congress scored a convincing win over BJP in both Panchayat Samiti (PS) and Zila Parishad (ZP). Congress won on 670 PS and 99 ZP seats, while the opposition (BJP bagged 551 PS and 90 ZP seats. The results have reserved the 2015 results when BJP had emerges victorious.
Of the 1564 PS seats for which votes were polled, results have been declared for 1562. Independent candidates registered victory on 290 seats while Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) won 40 and 11 seats respectively. Congress got a clear majority in 26 PS and BJP on 14 while rest 38 are open and independents and others will play a key role in the formation of the Board in these PS.
While in 6 ZP of 200 seats 189 went to the Congress and the BJP and independent candidates won on 8 seats followed by the BSP with 3.
Congress got a clear majority in four out of the six ZP — Dausa, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Sawai Madhopur — while BJP swept the Sirohi and emerged as the single largest party in Bharatpur. The Congress has taken away the Jaipur and Jodhpur ZP from BJP while holding its grip on Sawai Madhopur and Dausa.
In the previous elections of 2015, BJP had won 584 out of 1,328 PS seats Its last ZP tally was 100 to Congress's 90.
Though it was an election of just 6 districts but was considered important as 4 out of 6 districts namely Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bharatpur and Dausa are politically very important. Besides this, the elections had taken place amidst internal conflicts in both Congress and BJP.
The results have shown that despite deep factionalism the ruling Congress has managed to retain a hold of its core rural vote bank in the state. It is being considered important as the party had lost elections of ZP and PS of 21 districts held last year. It is believed that inflation has played a major role in the defeat of the BJP.
The results are being considered as a confidence booster for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot who was under pressure not only from BJP but within the party, with dissidents targeting his government and ministers. Following the news, Gehlot took to Twitter to congratulate the winning candidates and thank the voters.
“I thank the voters for making the Congress victorious in Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad elections. Many congratulations to all the winning candidates and Congress workers,” he tweeted.
On the other hand, it is believed that the poor performance of BJP will stir the internal politics of the party and state leadership will now be targeted more by the leaders of the faction of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. Raje's tweeted reaction to the results has already indicated this. Though she thanked the voters for their support and alleged misuse of government machinery to influence the polls by the ruling party, she also contended that the 'party needs to do more hard work which we’ll do together'.
Meanwhile, BJP party president Satish Poonia said that the seats won by BJP and others are more than of Congress, and so it was overall a mandate against the government.
