The fight of Congress party for the common man has yielded results, claimed Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CGPCC) president Bhupesh Baghel while reacting over the results of local bodies’ polls declared on Sunday.
The ruling BJP received a setback in the urban body polls as it was restricted to four out of 10 municipal corporations, 16 out of 39 municipal councils and 37 out of 105 nagar panchayats of the State. Over former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi’s non-participation in election campaign, Baghel said the tickets were distributed as per the direction of party high command and polls were fought under a collective leadership. “Ajit Jogiji is our senior leader and he must introspect,” Baghel added.
Replying over party’s setback in Dhamtari and Durg, ClP leader TS Singhdeo said that the party will have to think over factors which did not work in its favour. Pramod Dubey, the Congress party’s winning candidate for Raipur Mayoral post, attributed the win to the people and his party workers. He called upon all the party’s winning Corporator candidates to work towards developing a better Raipur irrespective of party they represent.
Meanwhile, immediately after the urban body poll results on Sunday, Chief Minister Raman Singh admitted that the results were not according to expectations and the party will introspect on this. Talking to reporters, Singh admitted that the party’s performance was below par and it will review the results and identify the reasons for improvement. Congress which had three Mayors in the 2009 municipal elections managed to win four Mayoral posts this time. The BJP had six Mayoral posts in 2009. Two posts were snatched by the independent candidates.
Congress has won Ambikapur, Korba, Jagdalpur and Raipur Mayoral posts while BJP candidates were declared elected from Bilaspur, Dhamtari, Rajnandgaon and Durg. Congress won 16 posts of Chairman of Municipal Councils. Similarly, Congress surpassed the BJP by winning in 50 Nagar Panchayats whereas BJP was restricted to 37 only. In a development, tension prevailed in Kushalpur locality of the city after an Independent candidate Bhupendra Dewangan staged chakka jam on Raipur-Durg National Highway following his defeat by a thin margin in the civic body polls. He was declared winning candidate for the post of Corporator in Ward Number 64 of RMC after the counting of EVM was over. However, after postal ballots were counted, the opponent won.