Party’s official candidate Manoj Bhardwaj lost the polls on Tuesday in a shock defeat; BJP rebel Vishnu Lata wins with Congress support
After the humiliating defeat in Assembly elections, the BJP had to face another major defeat in the state capital on Tuesday. Despite having a majority of 73% in Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC), BJP candidate Manoj Bhardwaj had to face defeat in the by-polls for the post of mayor while BJP’s rebel Independent candidate Vishnu Lata won by one vote.
Nearly 21 councillors of the Saffron party voted against the official party candidate. To stop cross-voting, BJP had even lodged its councillors in a resort for three days and warned them of disciplinary action. Despite this, they did cross-voting.
Jaipur is considered as a stronghold of the BJP and the RSS. Despite this, the BJP had to face a shameful defeat in the state Assembly elections, which concluded in December last. BJP lost five seats out of eight of Jaipur city.
This is the biggest defeat in BJP’s history in Jaipur. After the Assembly elections, the party had to face another embarrassing defeat on Tuesday.
Most of the BJP councillors were opposing Bhardwaj even then party declared Bharadwaj as mayor candidate. Angered by this decision, Lata filed nomination as an Independent against Bharadwaj. Voting was held from 2.30 pm to 5.00 pm on Tuesday. All 90 municipal councillors cast their votes. After the polling, the returning officer, additional district collector (third) Arvind Saraswat declared Lata as elected. Lata got 45 votes while Bharadwaj 44 votes while one vote was cancelled.
JMC has 91 wards. It may be recalled that Ashok Lahoti resigned from mayor post and ward 43 after being elected as MLA from Sanganer. Therefore 90 councillors voted in the by-elections. The BJP has 63 councillors, Congress 18 and there are 9 Independents in the JMC. The BJP received support from three Independent councillors too. That is why it has around 73 per cent (66 votes) majority. Lata got 45 out of 90 votes. It is believed that 21 BJP councillors cross-voted.
Earlier, there was opposition in the BJP over Bharadwaj’s name. After Lahoti resigned, Bharadwaj was made acting mayor. During this time, BJP councillors did not allow Bharadwaj to sit on the mayor’s chair.
BJP Jaipur district incharge Rajendra Gehlot and MLA Satish Poonia proposed Bharadwaj’s name to BJP councillors on Monday in the resort but they opposed his name. They had also prepared a memorandum against Bharadwaj which was signed by 33 councillors. However, BJP city president Sanjay Jain had torn this memorandum.
Meanwhile, two chapters were added on Tuesday in the history of JMC. For the first time, the city got a third mayor in the five-year term of a board of JMC. Lata is also the first mayor of Jaipur, who was elected as an Independent candidate and he is the second non-BJP mayor of Jaipur.
JMC was formed in 1994. In the last 24 years, there has been a majority of BJP in the municipal corporation. The previous Gehlot government implemented the provision of direct election of the mayor in the municipal elections in 2009. Congress candidate Jyoti Khandelwal was elected as mayor. But after the formation of BJP government in 2013, the Mayor’s direct election rule was rolled back.
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