The BJP has cornered enough seats to win the Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad elections held in Rajasthan’s 21 districts.
Till Wednesday morning, results were proclaimed for 4,051 seats of 4,371 panchayat samitis, out of which BJP won in 1,836, Congress in 1,718 and independents stowed 422. Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantric Party (RLP) won 56 seats, CPIM 16 and BSP 3. Most outcomes have been pronounced for the Zila Parishad political election for 636 seats. The BJP has won 326 seats, 10 by the RLP, two by the CPI(M), and the rest by others.
Meanwhile, in Fatehpur police station area of Sikar region, a man was executed and 10 others were harmed in a gathering conflict between people of two communities during an election victory procession.
In the Zila Parishad elections, the BJP won 263 seats, while the Congress settled at 199. Ravi Shekhar, son of Union Minister Arjun Meghwal, lost by 2400 votes in Zila Parishad Councilor election in Bikaner. Meghwal was aiming to make his son a Zila pramukh.
BJP has also been routed in Baytoo panchayat samiti in Barmer, a former assembly segment where MoS Agriculture Kailash Chaudhary was elected last time.
In Tonk, which is a bastion of Sachin Pilot, BJP has managed to win 15 out of 25 seats while Congress has won the remaining 10.
The polls to elect 636 Zila Parishad members and 4,371 Panchayat Samiti members were conducted in four phases on November 23, November 27, December 1 and December 5.
The elections 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.
A State Election Commission spokesman said 1,778 candidates for 636 Zila Parishad positions and 12,663 candidates for 4,371 Panchayat Samiti posts are in the fray.
He said that the counting of votes for all the phases began at 9 am today at all district headquarters. The election for the head or chief of Panchayat will be held on December 10 and the election of the deputy chief will be conducted on December 11.
Rajasthan is governed by the Congress party under the leadership of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
These were the first elections to be conducted in the state after the coronavirus pandemic forced the country into lockdown and subsequent ‘stay at home’ protocols. Even today, the pandemic continues to rage through the country as health experts are at the final stages of developing a vaccine.
The state recorded 19 new coronavirus deaths on Monday, taking the overall fatality figure to 2,448; 1,927 new cases were also reported, pushing the total infection count to 2,82,512.
As of now, there are 21,671 active cases in Rajasthan, while 2,58,393 people have recovered from the disease so far.
In Jaipur, the death toll due to Covid-19 is currently at 459, followed by 257 in Jodhpur, 200 in Ajmer, 164 in Bikaner, 147 in Kota, 114 in Bharatpur, 105 in Udaipur and 95 in Pali.
Of the 1,927 new infections, 475 were reported from Jaipur, 203 from Jodhpur, 137 from Kota, 96 from Bharatpur, 89 from Nagaur, 84 from Udaipur, and 78 from Alwar.
