Jaipur: Congress put a dent in several BJP strongholds as many candidates won seats from Vidhyadhar Nagar, Sanganer and Malviya Nagar.
Earlier, Congress councillors used to find it tough to win seats from these areas. In Malviya Nagar legislative assembly, not even a single Congress councillor was able to bag a seat the last time. This year, the party won nine seats.
Congress spokesperson Archana Sharma said, “I lost the MLA election in close contest in 2019 but did not sit at home after that. This is a BJP stronghold but with continuous work since the municipal board was dissolved last year, we were able to make an impression in the minds of people who voted for us.”
She said three of her candidates lost by a thin margin signalling that the next time, the results will be much better. Similarly in Sanganer, where Ashok Lahoty is the sitting MLA, 15 seats were won by the Congress.
Some Congress candidates, however, faced embarrassment in the elections as well. Bhagwat Singh Deval, Rajesh Biwal, Gopal Krishna Sharma and Prakash were BJP rebels who supported Vishnu Lahta in the mayor election in 2019. They all lost the seat this year. Deval, a three-time councillor from the same ward, was sure of his victory, “It was shocking for me as I was expecting it to be a one-sided affair. But then sometimes, the situation is not in our control.”
Meanwhile, candidates which the party replaced in place of its former councillors in Sanganer legislative area all lost the election. Dharam Singh, Mukesh Sharma and Dinesh Saini were former councillors of Congress who didn’t get tickets but still the party lost.
“Congress would have gotten more seats if the ticket distribution was done in a better way. MLAs gave tickets to their acquaintances knowing well that the person wasn’t working on the ground. If the ticket distribution was done in a coordinated way, the Congress would have won more seats in JMC, Greater,” said a source in Congress.