The BJP’s mayoral and deputy mayoral candidates, Asha lakra and Sanjiv Vijayawargia, registered remarkable victory in the elections for Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC), the State’s biggest urban local body (UlB).
Amid tough competition and much uproar over internal conflict between lakra and Vijayawargia which was frequently raked up by the opposition party members during the election campaign, the duo emerged victorious for the second consecutive time.
lakra got 1,49,623 votes while Sanjiv Vijayawargia won the post of Deputy Mayor with 97,281 votes. For mayoral post, in the close fight between BJP and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) contestants, JMM’s Varsha Gari stood second with 1,10,007 votes. With a difference of over 39,616 votes, lakra yet again clinched the seat of the first citizen of Ranchi. The ruling party’s close alliance- All Jharkhand Students’ Union (AJSU) party’s mayoral candidate, Kusum Ranjita Singh Munda was placed in third position with merely 23,824 votes.
Similarly, the deputy mayoral post was won by Vijayawargia for the second consecutive time with a difference of 33,120 votes. Deputy Mayoral candidate of Indian National Congress (INC), Dr. Rajesh Kumar Gupta ‘Chotu’ got 64,161 followed by JMM’s Asraf Khan ‘Chunnu’ who received 51,143 votes grabbing second and third place respectively in this civic poll.
According to the district administration’s record, to elect mayoral candidate a total of 3,35,718 votes were cast by the city residents. Five contestants – namely Asha lakra (BJP), Varsha Gari (JMM), Kusum Ranjita Singh Munda (AJSU), Ajay Tirkey (Face of INC but fought civic election as an independent candidate), Shiva Kumar Kacchap (JVM) were in the race for the Mayor’s post.
On the other hand, 19 candidates contested civic election-2018 to win the post of RMC’s Deputy Mayor. 10 candidates fought election on party symbol while nine candidates contested the civic poll as independent candidates. A total of 3,35,765 votes were cast to elect the Deputy Mayoral candidate by the public from the State Capital.
The winning contestants pledged to work for public interest in coordination. Mayor Asha lakra said, “I am overwhelmed with the response. Public have yet again supported me which not just shows immense faith in a person specific but faith in a political party which believes in the idea of ‘Development’. My priorities will be completing all the incomplete projects besides, taking up the new innovative projects considering the benefit of all sections of society.”
Similarly, Deputy Mayor—Sanjiv Vijayawargia said, “Major civic issues that have somewhere taken a backseat will be dealt with priority. Since the civic poll-2018 was held on party line basis for top contestants, BJP’s victory shows public trust and as a representative of the BJP, attempts will be made to deal with all public grievances. Issues like reduction in holding tax rate, water crisis are in the top agenda list.”
Notably, for the first time, Urban local Body (UlB) polls for Mayoral and Deputy Mayoral candidates were conducted on party line basis. Also, Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used for the first time during the civic poll with None of the Above (NOTA) option. Taking NOTA count separately, 11,517 people pressed NOTA for Mayoral candidates while 4,204 electorates selected NOTA for Deputy Mayoral contestants.