Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 21: Independents in several civic bodies upset the Congress apple cart in the mayoral elections in Rajasthan on Monday as the state’s ruling party the BJP further strengthened its position in the grass root levels capturing the mayor’s post even in some of the civic bodies where it secured less seats than the Congress.
The BJP won the mayoral posts in six of the seven municipal corporations in the state including Alwar and Udaipur where the saffron party had failed to win a majority on its own with Bikaner remaining the only consolation gain for the Congress, with the biggest upset being in Ajmer.
In the Alwar Municipal Corporation, the saffron party had won 28 of the 65 wards, while the Congress bagged 23. However, BJP’s Suman Lata Agarwal was elected as the mayor after she received 42 votes in her favour. This came after 13 independents voted in her favour, while the Congress candidate received just 23 votes.
Similarly, BJP’s Paras Singhvi was elected as Udaipur’s mayor after receiving 55 votes in his favour, while Congress’ candidate Poonam Kumar Rathore secured 25 votes. The BJP had won 53 of 80 wards in the recently held local body polls against Congress’ 23 wards, while independents had secured victories on three wards.
In a major setback for the Congress, which emerged as the single-largest party in the civic polls, the BJP secured the mayor’s post in Ajmer Municipal Corporation after its candidate secured 43 votes in the mayoral election with all 11 independent councillors voting in favour of the party.
The BJP had 32 councillors in Ajmer as against 37 of the Congress after the civic polls, but he BJP managed to bring under its fold all the 11 independents raising its tally to 43 in the mayoral vote. The Congress candidate for the mayor’s post secured 37 votes.
Similarly in the 65-member Pali municipal corporation where too the Congress had emerged as the single largest party, the BJP secured the mayor’s post after receiving the additional support of 12 councillors including some cross-voting by the Congress. In the mayoral election, BJP candidate Namita Bubakiya received the support of 33 councillors, while 29 voted for independent Rajbala Higad, who lost by a narrow margin of just 4 votes. For the Congress candidate Sumitra Jain, it was a huge embarrassment, as despite having 29 elected ward councillors and being the single-largest party in the corporation, the party secured only 3 votes in the final mayoral ballot due to cross-voting. The support of the additional councillors proved crucial for the BJP in securing the mayor’s post. In the elections, the Congress emerged as the largest party with 29 seats, while the BJP won 21 wards. However, the independent candidates have bagged 15 seats, making the overall electoral equation interesting.
In Bharatpur and Bhilwara, BJP candidates for the mayors’ posts were elected unopposed.
Winning the Bikaner mayoral election was the sole consolation for Congress where party candidate Anil Kalla became the mayor. He received 50 votes in his favour against BJP leader Surender Singh Shekhawat’s 30. The Congress had won 42 of the 79 wards of Bikaner in the 2026 local body polls, while the BJP secured 27 wards.
The Congress has repeatedly alleged that the BJP used muscle power to gain an upper hand in the 2026 local body elections in Rajasthan. It has also claimed that Congress councillors were being detained and prevented from voting in some urban local bodies.
“Congress councillors have been held hostage and taken to the forests of Chandigarh, while former MLA Sandeep Yadav was detained by Haryana Police for seven hours,” Tikaram Jully, Congress leader and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Rajasthan Assembly, said earlier in the day. “Stopping, detaining and holding elected councillors using police force is not an election, it is an open attempt to capture the people’s mandate.”
“This is not an election, but an attempt to capture the mandate using the power of the government. It is an open violation of democratic norms and blatant misuse of government machinery,” he alleged.
Neither the BJP, nor the state government has responded to the allegation. The mayoral elections, meanwhile, in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota will be held on September 25.