Civic polls were held in Gurugram on Sunday and BJP suffered a major setback as despite being the only sole party contesting the polls in all 35 wards, could not win the majority seats.
Of the 35 seats, the party to get the majority had to win at least 18 but was able to nail down only 14. Now, to put its candidate as the mayor the party will have to bundle up with the independents, who won 20 wards. The Indian National Lok Dal had contested on 20 wards, of which it only won 1 and Congress like the last time did not fight the elections but backed the independents.
According to the sources, the senior BJP officials seem to be confident in making their candidate the mayor. But the fact that despite being the ruling party in the state, not being able to get the victory in the civic polls can be a major setback for the party.
BJP’s defeat is being regarded the result of the party’s ticket distribution strategy. Few of the contestants who left BJP and fought as independent candidate won the polls in as many as 7 wards.
The BJP MP from Gurgaon and Union minister Rao Inderjit Singh in his statement said that for the time being, they have accepted the decision of the people, though a thorough analysis will be done on the results. Few BJP members believe that the party did not have any serious rival to fight against but the main reason for the defeat was the distribution of the tickets and the caste factor was also responsible for the results.
Some Party members also admitted that ahead of the polls, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was also requested to hold the election campaign himself as the senior members sensed the need to showcase a bigger face to win the polls.
“As the campaigning came to an end, the party realised it may not be able to win even a dozen seats and urged the CM to come and campaign. Among the high-profile seats was Ward 17 from which the probable mayor, Madhu Azad, was contesting. The other seat for which the CM campaigned was that of the son of Bhani Ram Mangla,” a senior party functionary confirmed.
Madhu Azad a BJP contestant who fought from ward no 7 is likely to be nominated for the post of the mayor, which is reserved for a woman this time. Though she is not appointed yet, but she seems to have already assumed her post after she was declared victorious. Madhu said that “I will take forward the projects like Swachh Bharat and Beti Bachao announced by Prime Minister Modi and CM Khattar to places where it is yet to reach.”