The ruling Congress on Saturday won 670 panchayat samiti seats and the Opposition BJP trailed behind with 551 seats in the panchayat body elections held in six districts of Rajasthan. Polling for electing 1,564 members of 78 panchayat samitis and 200 members of six Zila Parishads was held in three phases.
In the counting of votes on Saturday, the Congress obtained a majority in the samitis, while the BJP was leading in the ZP polls by winning 55 of the 115 seats for which the results were announced till late evening. The Congress won 52 ZP seats and the Bahujan Samaj Party three.
The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, which was an ally of the BJP in Rajasthan and had quit the National Democratic Alliance over the issue of agriculture sector laws last year, won 40 samiti seats, while the Independents emerged victorious in 290 seats. The BSP won 11 samiti seats.
Ahead of the results, one ZP member and 26 samiti members were elected unopposed. The polling was held on August 26, 29 and September 1 in the districts of Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Dausa and Sirohi.
The Congress candidates obtained the majority of samiti seats in Jodhpur, which is Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s home district. Its candidates Leela Maderna and Munni Devi Godara, claimants to the Zila Pramukh’s post, won the ZP seats. The post of Zila Pramukh is reserved for women in Jodhpur.
Pradesh Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said the results had proved that the ruling party held the ground in the rural areas and the BJP had failed to make any inroads. He said the Congress winners would be appointed Pradhans in 60 samitis, where they had achieved a clear majority, while the BJP would be restricted to 14 samitis.
