Madhya Pradesh: BJP wins five mayoral seats out of 11, leads in two; AAP and Congress bag one each

BJP party flag

In the mayoral elections held in 11 municipal corporations in Madhya Pradesh, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious at five places so far on Sunday evening, while the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) each bagged the post in two other cities.

The counting of votes for the top civic post in still on in four other places and as per the latest trends, the BJP and Congress were leading in two municipal corporations each, officials said. The BJP won the mayoral elections in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar and Ujjain, the Congress in Chhindwara, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which contested the civic polls in MP for the first time, bagged the post in Singrauli. The results has brought some respite for the opposition Congress with its win in Chhindwara and leads in two other places.

In the last elections, the party had failed to win not even one out of the total 16 corporations in the state. A Congress leader confirmed that their party had not won even a single mayoral election in the state last time. The local bodies elections in the state for 413 municipalities, including 16 Nagar Palika Nigam, 99 Nagar Palika Parishad and 298 Nagar Parishad were held in two phases - on July 6 and 13.

Under the first phase, polling was held in 11 municipal corporations, 36 nagar palikas and 86 nagar parishads. The counting of votes for these elections began at 9 am on Sunday. In the first phase, elections for the post of mayor were held in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar, Singrauli, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Chhindwara, Indore and Bhopal. BJP candidates Madhuri Patel, Yogesh Tamarkar, Amrita Amar Yadav, Sangeeta Tiwari and Mukesh Tatwal emerged victorious in the mayoral elections to Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar and Ujjain, respectively, while AAP candidate Rani Agrawal won the city Singrauli city's top post, officials said. Congress won the mayoral post in Chhindwara with its candidate Vikram Ahaka defeating his rival Anand Dhurve by 3,547 votes.

This is after a gap of 18 years that the Congress won Chhindwara civic election' top post. Chhindwara is the home turf of state Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath. He had been elected from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency nine times. According to the officials, Congress candidates were leading in two municipal corporations - Jabalpur and Gwalior. Patel, Tamarkar, Yadav, Tiwari and Tatwal defeated their nearest rivals from the Congress - Shahnaz Ansari, Siddharth Kushwaha, Asha Mishra, Nidhi Jain and Mahesh Parmar - by a margin of 542, 24,916, 19,763, 12,665 and 736 votes, respectively, in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar and Ujjain. In Singrauli, AAP candidate Rani Agrawal defeated her nearest BJP rival Chandrapratap Vishwakarma by a margin of 9,231 votes. This is the first time that the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is contesting civic elections in MP.

Kejriwal had recently held a roadshow in support of Agrawal. BJP candidates Pushyamitra Bhargava and Malti Rai have established decisive leads of over 1 lakh and 51,000 votes, respectively, over their nearest Congress rivals Sanjay Shukla and Vibha Patel in Indore and Bhopal. Congress candidates Jagat Bahadur Singh and Shobha Shikarwar were leading over their BJP rivals Jitendra Jamdar and Suman Sharma by handsome margins of 43,694 and 22,867 votes in Jabalpur and Gwalior respectively. "These two leads might come as a morale booster to the Congress. It is after 57 long years that the party is heading to win Gwalior mayoral post," a Congress leader said.

"If the Congress wins Gwalior, the image of two Union ministers - Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narendra Tomar - would take a beating, political observers said. If it happens, it would give ammunition to the Congress to target Scindia. The rebellion in 2020 by Scindia, who was then with the Congress, had resulted in the collapse of the Kamal Nath-led government in the state within 15 months of coming to power. Nath had to resign as the chief minister in March 2020, as the party lost majority in the House following the resignation of 22 party MLAs, who were Scindia loyalists. Scindia and his followers had later joined the BJP. The Congress also expressed confidence of winning in Jabalpur, saying that it would clinch the post there after a gap of 18 years.

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