BJP humbled in Mandideep

THE CONGRESS today snatched the Mandideep Nagar Palika chairman’s post from the BJP causing a mjor embarrassment to the ruling party. The post was won by the Congress after a period of ten years.

Mandideep falls under Vidisha Lok Sabha constituency represented by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan five times in a row until recently. 

The results of the Nagar Palika election were declared today. The result is being considered in the political circles a setback to the State BJP president Satyanarayan Jatia too, as this happened to be the first civic body elections with Jatia as the State BJP president and the Congress snatched the seat under the very nose of the State BJP. 

The BJP, however, can draw consolation from the fact that it has a slender majority over the Congress as far as corporators’ elections are concerned. The BJP has won nine seats of corporators, the Congress eight while one seat has gone to an independent.

The Congress nominee for chairman’s post, Umesh Pal, polled 7254 votes against the BJP nominee Tara Singh who secured 6366 votes. The CPM candidate Balwant Dange secured 1197 votes while an independent candidate Jagdish Chaursia had his security deposit forfeited.

The Congress nominee who is considered to be from Suresh Pachauri camp left behind his nearest rival in the very first round of counting. In none of the rounds Tara Singh could take over Umesh Pal.  Besides the post of chairman, the BJP lost its eight seats of corporators from ward 2,3,4,6,7, 8,9 and 14.  The winning corporators include Vaijaynti Narayan Maran (BJP) ward 1, Gyan Singh Tomar (Congress) ward 2,

It’s moral defeat for CM: Prahlad
THE BHARATIYA Janshakti leader Prahlad Patel has dubbed the BJP defeat as the moral defeat of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.  Talking to the Hindustan Times, Patel said he had been saying it since the Budhni assembly by-poll results that the Chief Minister’s victory in the by-poll was meaningless.

For the election was won with malpractices. Now, the Mandideep Nagar Palika election had showed as to what Chouhan’s real strength was, he added.  However, State BJP spokesperson Umashankar Gupta said the civic bodies’ elections were mainly influenced by local issues. The issues in Lok Sabha elections and assembly elections differed vastly from civic bodies’ elections, he added.