The ruling Congress in Rajasthan suffered a jolt in the panchayat elections on Wednesday as the BJP beat it by bagging 1,989 of the 4,371 panchayat samiti seats. The saffron party dubbed the win as a farmers' mandate amid protests against the Centre's new agri-marketing laws.
The Congress, on the other hand, won 1,852 seats, with almost all results of the four-phase local government polls being declared.
The CPI(M) won 26, while the RLP won six and the BSP bagged five. Independent candidates won 439 panchayat samiti seats.
The BJP, at the zila parishad level, made 353 of the 635 seats its own, while the Congress got 252.
Only one zila parishad seat result is yet to be announced in the election held across 21 of the state's 33 districts.
The BJP candidates are now in majority in 13 of these district boards and the party is set to head one more with the help of ally Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP). The Congress has won five of the remaining zila parishads.
The results, which came as a boost for the BJP amid the farmers’ protest in Delhi, were declared just days before the Ashok Gehlot government completes two years in Rajasthan, and only months after it tackled a revolt among the Congress MLAs led by sacked deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot.
On Twitter, BJP president J P Nadda called the Rajasthan success a symbol of trust farmers, labourers and the poor have in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.
Rajasthan Congress president Dotasra said his party will perform better in the next election.
“Many thanks to all the candidates for increasing the base of the party in the panchayat elections held in 21 districts of the state”, the Congress leader tweeted.
“These results motivate us to do better in future; Congress will do better in the upcoming elections by keeping good synergy between the government and the organisation,” he added.
But BJP state president Satish Poonia said the results signaled farewell to the corrupt government in the state.
The polls were held in the districts of Ajmer, Banswara, Barmer, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Bundi, Chittorgarh, Churu, Dungarpur, Hanumangarh, Jaisalmer, Jalore, Jhalawar, Jhunjhunu, Nagaur, Pali, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Sikar, Tonk and Udaipur.
