BJP sweeps urban body polls in Chhattisgarh, wins all 10 mayor posts

The counting of votes for the general elections held in 173 urban bodies, including 10 municipal corporations, 49 municipal councils, and 114 nagar panchayats, took place on Saturday

RAIPUR: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which defeated Congress in the assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Chhattisgarh, won the majority of civic body seats in the state, including all 10 mayoral positions.

The BJP won the chairperson post in 35 municipal councils and 81 nagar panchayats (PTI)

The vote counting process for the general elections held in 173 urban bodies, including 10 municipal corporations, 49 municipal councils, and 114 nagar panchayats, commenced on Saturday at 9am with postal ballots, followed by the counting of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) votes from 9.30am.

Apart from winning the mayoral post in all 10 municipal corporations, the BJP won the chairperson post in 35 municipal councils and 81 nagar panchayats, according to the result trends provided by state poll officials.

The Congress emerged victorious in the chairperson post in 8 municipal councils and 22 nagar panchayats, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the chairperson post in one municipal council, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) secured the chairperson post in one Nagar Panchayat. Independent candidates won the chairperson post in five municipal councils and 10 nagar panchayats.

As per the trends, the BJP has won or is leading in most wards for the post of corporators.

Hailing the BJP’s performance in the civic body polls, chief minister Vishnu Deo Sai called it a historic day, adding that it will be etched in the political history of Chhattisgarh in golden letters. “Today is a historic day for the BJP as well as the Chhattisgarh government. It will be etched in the political history of Chhattisgarh with golden letters because BJP has registered a historic landslide victory in civic body elections,” Sai said.

“People and voters of Chhattisgarh have shown faith in BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji, ‘Modi ki Guarantee,’ and the development works of the state government, for which I express my gratitude to them and congratulate them,” he added.

Sai also said that ‘Atal Vishwas Patra’ (party’s urban body poll manifesto) was prepared with extensive deliberations and its promises will be fulfilled.

“Unlike Congress, which makes promises and does not fulfill them later, BJP will fulfill its promises. Congress had “murdered democracy” by conducting indirect elections for the mayor post last time (in 2019-2020),” he added.

Congress state president Deepak Baij results has not come as per the expectation. “..First attempts were made to postpone the election, then the dates of the election were postponed. Earlier it was announced that the election would be conducted using ballot papers, later it was decided that voting would be conducted using EVMs. When voting through EVMs was decided then the machines of the Chairman and Councillors were connected together. VVPAT was not provided in it. Whereas in the case of EVMs the Supreme Court has clearly directed that VVPAT should be connected. During voting in the state there were complaints of EVMs stopping and malfunctioning at more than 100 places, somehow the voting was completed,” Baij said in his statement.

The Congress candidate who became mayor (of Raipur) through an indirect election (referring to Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar) has lost the corporator election this time from a ward in Raipur, he added.

In Raigarh Municipal Corporation, the party had fielded a tea seller, Jivardhan Chouhan, for the post of mayor, and he has secured a historic victory, he said.

In the last urban body polls held in 2019-2020, the then-ruling Congress in the state had won the mayoral posts in all 10 municipal corporations.

Previously, the election for mayoral posts and chairperson positions of municipal councils and nagar panchayats was held indirectly, where the public directly elected corporators, and the elected corporators then chose the mayor of municipal corporations and the chairpersons of other civic bodies from among themselves. This indirect system was introduced in 2019 by the then Bhupesh Baghel-led government.

However, this time, the Sai government restored the previous system of direct elections, allowing people to directly vote for mayors and chairpersons of municipal bodies.