Four days after the election of new Gujarat president, the ruling BJP has reason to cheer on Tuesday as the saffron party retained its control on urban Gujarat by capturing 16 out of 27 municipalities that went to polls on Sunday.
The victory came as a respite for the Gujarat BJP leadership as the saffron party lost heavily in rural belt to Congress in local self-Government polls in November last year. According to State BJP communiqué after the results BJP won 395 of 660 seats in 27 municipalities across 21 districts.
While BJP got a clear majority in 15 municipalities on its own, it was locked in a tie with main Opposition party in the State Congress in constituency of State agriculture Minister Jasabhai Barad, Sutrapada municipality. Both, BJP and Congress, bagged 12 of the 24 seats equally. It is believed that BJP would easily capture Sutrapada municipality and with it the party would have 16 municipalities in its pocket.
As far as the opposition Congress party is concerned, the grand old party won eight municipalities. Interestingly NCP, Samajwadi Party and Independents too win one municipality each. As the result came BJP spokesman IK Jadeja stated that Congress has not been able to even open its account in Savli, Kathlal, Thasra, Bayad, Bhabhar and Damnagar municipalities. According to Jadeja the results have proved that Congress has no place in hearts of the people and with the verdict Congress’s dreams of winning the State Assembly polls in 2017 would be shattered.
According to BJP media in-charge Harshad Patel claimed that BJP had 16 municipalities out of 27 that went to polls in the previous polls and hence the saffron party could maintained its score. However, the Congress spokesman Manish Doshi claimed that BJP was controlling 23 municipalities and Congress three ahead of the polls. After the result Congress gained by winning eight and it was BJP which lost control in seven municipalities.