Bhopal, Jul 20 (PTI) With the counting of votes for the second phase of the local bodies polls in Madhya Pradesh getting over on Wednesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed its performance as “historic”, saying that it has won over 300 out of 347 urban civic bodies.
The Congress also said this was the party’s best performance in this civic bodies poll in more than two decades.
Both the parties celebrated their performances.
The three-tier urban civic body elections in MP for 347 municipal bodies, including 16 municipal corporations, 76 municipal councils and 255 Nagar Parishads, were held in two phases – on July 6 and 13. The first phase results were declared on Sunday, while the counting of votes for the second phase of polling was held on Wednesday.
In the results declared on Sunday, the BJP had managed to retain seven out of the total 11 mayoral seats, the Congress had wrested three seats from the saffron party, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had bagged one seat. On Wednesday, the BJP and Congress won two mayor’s seats each, while an independent candidate bagged another post.
Talking about the overall results, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told reporters, “Besides winning nine out of 16 mayoral elections, BJP got a clear majority in 185 out of total 255 nagar parishads. In addition, the party is also forming its body in 46 other nagar parishads, where our position is better than the Congress.” The chief minister was quoting the State Election Commission’s data.
The Congress has managed to win only in 24 nagar parishads, he said.
The BJP’s winning percentage in nagar parishads in the 2014 civic bodies polls was 58, which now grew to over 90 percent, he said.
Chouhan said that the BJP is also forming its body in 65 out of 76 municipal councils or municipalities.
“We have a clear majority in 50 out of the 76 municipalities. The BJP is ahead in 15 other municipal councils. So our party is forming the body in 65 municipalities, which is 85 per cent of the total seats. On the contrary, the Congress is reduced to only 11 seats,” he said.
He said that the BJP had won 54 out of 98 municipal councils during the 2014 elections, but this time its percentage grew to a new high.
Chouhan said that the BJP’s corporators have won in majority even in the municipal corporations, where the mayoral candidate of the Congress registered victories in cities like Gwalior, Rewa and Jabalpur.
“BJP had never registered such a huge victory earlier. It’s historic,” he said.
State Congress chief Kamal Nath termed that it was his party’s “best” performance in the past 23-years.
While congratulating and thanking the party workers and the voters, Nath told reporters at the party’s state headquarters that the Congress has won in mayoral elections of five municipal corporations, which is the best performance since 1999 when a direct election for the mayor’s post was introduced.
Although people had voted in favour of the mayoral candidates of Congress in Burhanpur and Ujjain, they were defeated due to conspiracy and misuse of the administration by the government, Nath said.
“In 1999 and 2004, the Congress had won two mayoral seats and three in 2009. The Congress failed to win even a single seat in 2014, but this time, the party registered victories in five mayoral seats,” he said.
He said that the BJP had won 16 municipal corporations in the last civic bodies polls, but lost on seven seats this time, he said.
“But despite their defeat, the BJP has been celebrating. The BJP starts distributing the sweets whenever a child is born to another’s home,” he said.
Nath said that the performance of the Congress in Gwalior and Chambal region has been best in the last 57 years, while it also won the mayoral seat in Rewa of Vindhya region.
He said that several top BJP leaders belong to Gwalior Chambal region, where the ruling party is defeated.
Accusing the BJP government of misusing the police and administration for its victory, the MP Congress chief expressed confidence that his party will come to power after the 2023 assembly elections. PTI ADU MAS NP NP
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