In a jolt to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress on Thursday claimed the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation, winning 18 out of the 33 seats.
The BJP won 15 seats in the straight fight between the parties in the first-ever elections to the municipal corporation in the Gujarat capital, which forms part of the Lok Sabha constituency the veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani has won in the past four terms.
Earlier also, Gandhinagar, under the district panchayat, was held by the Congress but the party lost its control to the BJP owing to internal defections.
Now tasting victory, after having suffered defeats at almost all levels of the elections — from the Assembly to taluk panchayats — since 1995, the Congress celebrated with a bang, bursting crackers and distributing sweets in every district and taluk unit.
“Beginning of the end”
State president Arjun Modhwadia described the Congress win as the “beginning of the end” for the BJP in the State. “The people of Gandhinagar have expressed their distrust of both Mr. Advani and Chief Minister Narendra Modi.”
The Congress clinched the result when it claimed the entire panel of three seats in ward 4, which is comprised of the sectors in which the official residences of Mr. Modi and his Cabinet colleagues are located
Incidentally, Pravin Patel, former Gandhinagar unit BJP president, who was denied ticket and who contested on Congress symbol, led the panel in ward 4.
BJP State spokesman and former Cabinet Minister I.K. Jadeja, conceding defeat, said the party apparently failed to “break into the traditional vote bank of the Congress in the State capital. But we will bounce back.”
The BJP is in control of the remaining seven municipal corporations, 24 of the 26 district panchayats and a large majority of the municipalities and taluk panchayats in the State.
