BJP wins mayoral contests in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota
Bharatiya Janata Party candidates won mayoral elections in Rajasthan’s three largest municipal corporations on Friday. Sunil Kothari took Jaipur, Prasanna Chand Mehta won Jodhpur and Anusuiya Goswami prevailed in Kota, while the BJP also won the Suket municipality chairperson election by one vote.
Bharatiya Janata Party candidates have won the mayoral contests in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota, Rajasthan’s three biggest municipal corporations. Sunil Kothari was elected mayor of Jaipur, Prasanna Chand Mehta won in Jodhpur and Anusuiya Goswami was elected in Kota on Friday. The BJP also secured the chairperson position in Suket municipality in Kota district by a single vote.
The elections were conducted through votes cast by elected councillors, with counting taking place immediately after polling. The contests followed repolling in some wards after technical problems during urban local body elections earlier in the month. Kothari defeated Congress candidate Sunita Mawar in Jaipur by 89 votes to 60.
He received support from 11 Independent councillors and won by a margin of 29 votes. In Jodhpur, Mehta defeated Congress candidate Rajendra Solanki 53 votes to 47. In Kota, Goswami received 65 votes against Congress candidate Sunita Suman’s 35, giving her a 30-vote margin.
At Suket, BJP candidate Jitendra Chopra won 13 votes to 12 against Congress candidate Umardeen Khan. The narrow result gave the BJP the municipality chairpersonship by one vote. The voting figures in Jodhpur and Kota exceeded the declared councillor numbers of the rival parties, according to the report.
The Jaipur poll was accompanied by tension after Congress MLA Rafiq Khan staged a sit-in protest when he was denied entry to the municipal corporation premises. Khan and other Congress leaders alleged that party councillors were being prevented from voting. Khan, who represents Jaipur’s Adarsh Nagar constituency, said he would move a privilege motion.
He also accused the BJP government of using the administrative machinery politically. The protest ended after officials intervened.
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