Claiming victory in civic polls in Rajasthan and pointing to the party's triumph in a similar exercise in Madhya Pradesh, BJP on Thursday said that people have rejected the "campaign of calumny" unleashed against it by Congress. "Congress had unleashed a campaign of calumny bordering on malicious falsehood against (MP chief minister) Shivraj Singh Chouhan and (Rajasthan chief minister) Vasundhara Raje. But the people gave an effective reply to Congress that their allegations are absolutely false and untenable," Union Minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said here after his party won 1,443 out of the total of 3,351 wards in civic body polls in Rajasthan, the results for which were announced today.
Opposition parties, including Congress and Independents, won 1,908 wards in the polls. The 129 civic bodies in the state had gone to polls on August 17.
Prasad claimed that the people of Rajasthan and the country in general were backing BJP as they were happy and satisfied with the effective work carried out by its governments both at the Centre and in the states where it was in power. "People have rejected the campaign of disinformation and motivation. They trust in the good governance record of BJP," he said while describing the civic poll victory as a "very important development". He said the result in Rajasthan was important as Congress was once in control of seven municipal corporations in the state and now has none.
Meanwhile, attacking the Congress leadership, he said, "It is good that Rahul Gandhi is speaking these days. He kept mum when BJP won the Madhya Pradesh civic polls. Will you speak on Rajasthan now, where his friend Sachin Pilot is the state unit president." Further, taking a dig at Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, he said "it is good" that she has started coming in the well in Parliament and asked whether she will "speak now".
Prasad claimed that BJP has won all seven municipal bodies in Rajasthan and, out of a total 128 Nagar Palika/Parishads, the party should have its chairmen in 87 of them.
He said that Congress will bag only 20 to 22 chairmen, elections for which will be held tomorrow. In Jhalawar, Prasad claimed, BJP has won three out of the five Nagar Parishads. Prasad claimed that BJP has increased its vote percentage in these civic polls to 37.16%, up from 36.34% in 2010.
On the other hand, he said, Congress's vote bank has come down to 33.77% in 2015 as against 35.31% in 2010. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah have both congratulated the people of Rajasthan for reposing faith in the party and voting for it in the civic body polls.
As regards the Vyapam scam issue in MP, Prasad said that Chief Minister Chouhan had himself launched the investigation into the alleged irregularities and a state minister is under arrest over his suspected involvement in the scam.
The minister said that, be it Congress party, Rahul or Sonia Gandhi, all have been defeated by the people of MP. "They (Congress) lose before the public and take the support of lies," charged Prasad.
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