Congress on Tuesday won the majority of seats in the by-elections to Zila Parishads, Panchayat Samitis and municipal wards in Rajasthan.
Congress won all the four Zila Parishad seats, 16 of the 27 seats in Panchayat Samitis and seven of the 13 municipal wards. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won in 10 Panchayat Samiti wards, while one seat went to an independent candidate. The BJP candidates were elected in six municipal wards. The Zila Parishad seats and local body wards, for which by-elections were held last week, are situated in 26 districts of the State.
The seats in various rural and urban local bodies had fallen vacant in Udaipur, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Banswara, Dausa, Sriganganagar, Pratapgarh, Nagaur, Baran and other districts. Congress candidate Rajendra Patidar won by a margin of 3,178 votes for the Zila Parishad seat in Banswara.
Jubilant over the party's victory in the by-polls, Pradesh Congress president Sachin Pilot said the BJP's days were “numbered” in Rajasthan and its countdown had begun. “The Congress gave a tough fight to BJP in Gujarat. The Rajasthan government has completely neglected the people in both rural and urban areas during the last four years,” he said.
Mr. Pilot said the by-poll results in the State, coming just after the Gujarat Assembly election results, were “very encouraging” for Congress, as the local bodies which went to polls were geographically situated all over Rajasthan. “The results have depicted people's disenchantment with the BJP and a renewed faith in Congress,” he said, adding that his party would win in the upcoming by-elections to two Lok Sabha and one Assembly seats as well.
