BJP, Cong target each other over Rajasthan civic poll results

 BJP and Congress today targeted each other over Rajasthan civic poll results even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi thanked people of the state and his party workers for a "commendable" performance.

"A big thank you to people of Rajasthan. Congrats to Rajasthan BJP workers & leaders on the commendable performance in the civic polls," Modi tweeted about the results in which BJP emerged ahead in 60 out of 129 municipal bodies but suffered setback in Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's pocket-borough of Dholpur and Jhalawar where it was defeated.

Congress, which was routed in the Lok Sabha elections last year, made significant gains attaining or nearing majority in around 40 bodies and was neck and neck with BJP in 17 bodies.

Senior BJP leader and Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the results and trends of Rajasthan civic body polls showed how people replied to the Congress campaign of last two-three months against Raje over Lalit Modi controversy.

He reminded that BJP had recently won civic body polls in Madhya Pradesh as well despite the Congress campaign against its Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan over Vyapam scam.

On the other hand, Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot, said, "the BJP got only 36 per cent votes and Congress is only around two per cent less than it. Overall 64 percent people have voted against the BJP, which shows the mood of the people."

Latching on to BJP's loss in Raje's constituency, Pilot said, "Congresss won both the Municpal Council seats in the CM's constituency while it also won both seats in Lok Sabha MP Dushyant Singh's constituency. This reflects the hard work of Congress workers. We have come a long way from our performance during last Assembly polls."

Pilot accused the BJP government in Rajasthan of engaging in "open horse trading" in civic body polls.

The Congress leader felt that his party was hurt because of the state government's "last-minute decision through an ordinance" to prescribe a minimum qualification of class 10th pass for contesting the civic polls.

"Despite that we have won so many seats. This has broken the myth that urban areas are the strongholds of the BJP. We have won 10 of the 15 municipal councils. In other areas also we were in neck and neck fight with the BJP," he said.

Ruling BJP won three civic bodies with majority of wards in Jhalawar district represented by Chief Minister Raje and her son, while Congress won majority in two civic bodies. BJP will form boards in Eklera, Bhawani Mandi, and Pidawa with comfortable majority, while Congress will form boards in Jhalwar and Jhalarapatan.

The August 17 election for 129 civic bodies in the state had witnessed a record polling of 76.19 per cent.