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. The ruling BJP received a setback in the urban body polls as it was restricted only to 4 out of 10 municipal corporations, 16 out of 39 municipal councils and 37 out of 105 nagar panchayats of the State.
The prestigious Mayoral post of Raipur also was captured by Congress which managed to improve its performance despite internal factionalism. Congress which had three Mayors in the 2009 municipal elections managed to win four Mayoral posts this time. BJP had six Mayoral posts in 2009 but the number was reduced to four this time as 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 the Chairman of Municipal Councils. Similarly, Congress surpassed BJP by winning the elections in 50 Nagar Panchayats whereas BJP was restricted to 37 only.