In what must have come as a sudden shock for the Congress, the BJP won eight local body seats while the Congress managed to win only five seats in the local body by-polls held in the state of Rajasthan recently. The BJP won one Zila Parishad seat in Alwar and seven out of 13 Panchayat Samiti seats. On the other hand, the Congress won five Panchayat Samiti seats. Apart from this, an independent candidate won unopposed on one seat.
BJP candidates went on to win unopposed on three of the panchayat samiti seats whereas one Congress candidate won unopposed from another seat. Bypolls had been held for electing members of one Zila Parishad seat of Alwar and Panchayat Samiti of Bhilwara, Churu, Dausa, Dholpur, Kota, Nagaur, Pali and Sikar on December 28. The voting for Panchayati Raj institutions was supposed to take place on October 27 but it was postponed in view of the state assembly elections.
It is important to bear in mind that this win has come for the BJP shortly after the Congress defeated the BJP in the assembly polls. The news traders and the left-liberal cabal had been trying to write off the BJP after its defeat in the assembly polls. While some of them started saying that these results are warning bells for the BJP in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls next year, other news traders and armchair experts opined that this voting pattern will continue in the Lok Sabha polls as well and harm the BJP in a big way. However, it seems that the news traders and biased political commentators have been proved totally wrong.
The Congress had a chance of maintaining the momentum that it achieved in the state of Rajasthan. However, it seems that Congress has failed to capitalise on the advantage that it recently gained in the state. The results of the local body bypolls show that Congress does not enjoy a position of strength in the state. It seems that the mood of the state is changing all over again and that too within days of the Congress coming into power in the state. The BJP cannot be written off in the state as many were trying to. And if the local body election results were to be analysed, one would come to the conclusion that it is the BJP which has the momentum on its side as far as the state of Rajasthan is concerned in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls.
The recent local body bypolls show that the people of Rajasthan have realised the follies of the Congress within days of its coming into power in the state. One of the major poll promises on the basis of which the Congress came into power was farm loan waiver. However, we have already seen the case of Karnataka where farm loan waiver worth 44,000 crore rupees has benefitted only 800 farmers so far. The JD(S)-Congress coalition is in power in the state with JD(S) leader, H.D. Kumaraswamy as the Chief Minister. In Rajasthan, a farm loan waiver has been announced but given the administrative track record of the party, one can expect only a little success on that front. Another issue which might have disillusioned the people of the state is how the newly formed Congress government is indulging in vendetta politics in the state. In fact, the Gehlot cabinet has revoked four major decisions by previous Raje government. In fact, the Gehlot cabinet has resolved to review all the decisions made by the Raje government in the last six months of her tenure. This shows that the priority of the newly elected government is vendetta politics rather than the welfare of the people and this is why it is bound to face the wrath of the voters.
