The urban bodies poll results in Chhattisgarh on Friday shocked the ruling BJP as the saffron party managed to win just three out of the 11 while the Congress unexpectedly surged almost everywhere whether it is all important Bhilai Municipal Corporation in Durg district or Maoist stronghold Bhopalpatnam in Bijapur district.
The defeat to the BJP, which is in power in the State since December 2003, has come as a real shock while for the Congress it was a perfect New Year gift.
Congress won Bhilai Municipal Corporation mayor seat and Jamul Municipal Council in Durg district, Marro Nagar Panchayat (Bemetara), Khairagarh Municipal Council (Rajnandgaon), Baikunthpur Municipal Council and Shivapurcharcha Municipal Council (Koriya), Konta Nagar Panchayat (Sukma) and Bhopalpatnam Nagar Panchayat (Bijapur).
The BJP managed to win only in Bhairamgarh Nagar Panchayat in (Bijapur), Naharpur Nagar Panchayat (Kanker) and Premnagar Nagar Panchayat in (Surajpur).
Political analysts said the BJP leaders including Chief Minister Raman Singh were confident of winning Bhilai Municipal Corporation mayor post while the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) leaders had already given up hope in Bhilai but the result shocked everyone.
Congress bet on a young face, Devendra Yadav, for mayor candidate in Bhilai against a seasoned BJP politician Vidyaratan Bhasin but Yadav defied all odds to register a record breaking win by 45,779 votes.
Disappointed by party performance, BJP State president Dharamlal Kaushik admitted that results were ‘frustrating’ but he advised party workers to not ‘lose heart’. “The results are definitely not as per my expectations, the party will soon analyse the defeat to ascertain what went wrong,” Kaushik told newsmen here.
While the upbeat PCC president Bhupesh Baghel hailed the party’s victory in eight out of the 11 urban bodies, and stated it was “a result of growing popularity of Congress and rising mistrust about the BJP among voters”. He added “People are now fed up with Raman Government which ditched farmers and common people.”