BJP wins big in Jharkhand municipal polls, bags all five municipal corporations in the state
PATNA: Jharkhand’s ruling BJP on Friday won big in the state’s municipal polls, bagging all the five municipal corporations and winning in 21 of the total 34 municipal bodies in elections held four days ago.
BJP candidates won the mayor and deputy mayor posts in all the five municipal corporations – Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Adityapur, Medninagar, and Giridih. The results of the polls came as a big morale booster for BJP and Chief Minister Raghubar Das before the Assembly polls slated for 2021.
“The poll results prove that the people of Jharkhand have enormous faith in the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The people have also rewarded the development agenda of the state government,” said a visibly elated Raghubar Das to reporters.
Sitting Ranchi mayor Asha Lakra of BJP won again, beating her Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) rival Varsha Giri by 39,000 votes. BJP’s Sanjiv Vijayavargiya beat Congress’s Rajesh Gupta for the post of deputy mayor of Ranchi. In Adityapur, BJP’s Vinod Srivastava beat Congress’s Yogendra Sharma for the mayor’s post while BJP’s Amit Singh won the deputy mayor’s post by defeating JMM’s Manoj Mahto.
In Hazaribagh, BJP’s Roshni Tirkey won the mayor's post by defeating Congress’s Gunja Devi; and BJP’s Raj Kumar Lal won the deputy mayor’s post by defeating Congress’s Anand Dev. Similarly, in Medininagar, BJP’s Aruna Shankar and Rakesh Kumar Singh won the mayor and deputy mayor’s posts by beating independent candidate Punam Singh and Manoj Singh of Congress respectively.
In Giridih, BJP’s Sunil Kumar Paswan and Prakash Ram won the mayor and deputy mayor’s posts by beating Congress’s Samir Raj Choudhary and Mohammad Istiak respectively.
Displaying a similar winning streak in the Nagar Parishad and Nagar panchayats, BJP won seven presidents’posts and five vice-presidents’ posts in 16 Nagar Parishad. The Opposition JMM and Congress managed to win four and two posts of presidents respectively. The two parties also won two and three posts of vice-presidents respectively.
It was for the first time in Jharkhand that elections for posts of mayor and deputy mayor of municipal corporations and chairmen and vice-chairmen of municipal councils were held on party lines. Voting for 34 civic bodies were held on Monday with an average 65.15 per cent polling against the 63.17 per cent in 2013.