Buoyed by the victory in civic polls in Rajasthan, the ruling BJP on Thursday claimed it would form the board in more than 80 of the 129 local bodies. The party managed to win clear majority in 66 civic bodies.
State BJP president Ashok Parnami said: “BJP would have board in at least 80 civic bodies including Ajmer Municipal Corporation, and this figure could go up to 100 with support of Independents.”
“Many of the Independents have given their consent to elect BJP chairmen and deputy-chairmen whose elections would be held August 21 and 22, respectively,” Mr. Parnami said.
Independents were in a majority in 17 civic bodies while there was tie between BJP and Congress in 10 more boards.
The election of the chairman and deputy-chairman would be held based on party’s core committee recommendations in which elected councillors would vote, he said.
On party’s loss in civic bodies in Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s home bastion and her son Dushyant Singh’s Lok Sabha constituency- Jhalawar, Dholpur and Baran, Mr. Parnami said these were municipal level polls in which caste equation matters for victory of candidates.
“This particular loss does not reflect mandate against the BJP government in any way. Public voted the BJP with majority on three grounds — progress of the Raje government, misleading propaganda and cheap politics of opposition Congress, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dynamic leadership,” he said.
Asked how the party could form the board in over 80 civic bodies as it could win clear majority in 66, Mr. Parnami said some of the elected Independents contested the polls with support of the BJP or they would support party nominees for chairman and deputy-chairman.
Rejecting Congress’ claim that BJP’s vote share went down in the polls, mr. Parnami claimed BJP’s poll percentage rose from 31.65 per cent in the year 2000 to 37.16 per cent this year.
BJP has been on a winning spree since the 2013 Assembly polls. It won the Lok Sabha polls, then Panchayati Raj polls, and civic bodies polls, he said.-PTI
