The BJP on Friday swept the Municipal Elections in Jharkhand by winning all five municipal corporations, besides registering victories in Municipal Council and Nagar Panchayat polls. The elections took place on 16 April, the votes of which were counted on Friday.
The five municipal corporations BJP won are – Ranchi, Medninagar, Adityapur, Hazaribagh and Giridi, which means the party will have both the Mayor and Deputy Mayor in these seats.
In case of Ranchi’s Mayoral seat, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s (JMM) Varsha Gari was defeated by BJP’s Asha Lakra by about 39,000 votes. The BJP won the Deputy mayoral seat by defeating a Congress candidate.
In case of the Municipal Council polls which were held for 16 seats, the BJP is pitted to have seven Chairpersons and five Vice-Chairpersons, with seats like Gadhwa, Sahebganj, Pakud and Chirkunda having both the posts filled by BJP candidates.
When it comes to the 14 Nagar Panchayats, the BJP won nine President and five Vice-President posts. The JMM won four President and two VP posts, Congress on the other hand won two President and three VP posts. Besides Domchanch, Husainabad, Kapali and Chhatarpur, the BJP has managed to win at least one post in all the Nagar Panchayats.
These results were welcomed by current Chief Minister of Jharkhand Raghubar Das who called it a victory of development and 3.5 crore citizens of Jharkhand. He also called it a victory of PM Modi’s policies and BJP Chief Amit Shah’s guidance.
Such a victory for the BJP in local body elections comes a couple of months after the party registered an assertive victory in Gujarat by winning 47 Nagar Palikas. In these polls the BJP won 27 out of 28 seats in the Prime Minister’s hometown, Vadnagar.