BHOPAL: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday managed to retain seven out of the total 11 mayoral seats in Madhya Pradesh that went to polls, while the Congress wrested three seats from the saffron party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged one.
The Congress termed the results as "encouraging", while the BJP hailed its own performance in the elections as "historic".
In the last local body elections held in 2015, all these mayoral seats were with the BJP.
In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his gratitude towards the people for reposing their faith in the BJP in the local body elections.
"This win is a symbol of people's unbreakable trust in the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in the state. Congratulations to the party workers along with the winning candidates," he said in a tweet.
Assembly polls in the BJP-ruled state will be held in 2023.
The BJP won the mayoral elections in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar, Ujjain, Indore and Bhopal, the Congress in Chhindwara, Jabalpur and Gwalior, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP, which contested the civic polls in MP for the first time, bagged the post in Singrauli.
Kejriwal hailed in the victory saying that it is an indication of the acceptability of AAP's honest politics in every corner of the country.
The result with three wins might have brought good tidings for the opposition Congress.
In the last such elections, the party had failed to win any seat out in the total 16 corporations in the state.
The Congress's gain has resulted in the loss of three seats to BJP in the first round of mayoral elections.
The grand old party is hopeful of pulling off some more victories in the second phase of civic polls for the remaining five mayoral posts.
A Congress leader confirmed that their party had not won even a single mayoral election in the state last time.
The local bodies elections in the state for 413 municipalities, including 16 Nagar Palika Nigam, 99 Nagar Palika Parishad and 298 Nagar Parishad were held in two phases - on July 6 and 13.
Under the first phase, polling was held in 11 municipal corporations, 36 nagar palikas and 86 nagar parishads.
The counting of votes for these elections began at 9 am on Sunday.
In the first phase, elections for the post of mayor were held in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar, Singrauli, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Chhindwara, Indore and Bhopal.
BJP candidates Madhuri Patel, Yogesh Tamarkar, Amrita Amar Yadav, Sangeeta Tiwari, Mukesh Tatwal, Pushyamitra Bhargava and Malti Rai emerged victorious in the mayoral elections to Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar, Ujjain, Indore and Bhopal respectively, while AAP candidate Rani Agrawal won the Singrauli city's top post, officials said.
Congress won the mayoral post in Chhindwara with its candidate Vikram Ahaka defeating his rival Anand Dhurve by 3,547 votes.
This is after a gap of 18 years that the Congress won Chhindwara civic election's top post.
Chhindwara is the home turf of state Congress president and former chief minister Kamal Nath.
He had been elected from the Chhindwara Lok Sabha constituency nine times.
Besides, Congress candidates Jagat Bahadur Singh and Shobha Shikarwar defeated their nearest rivals of the BJP - Jitendra Jamdar and Suman Sharma - by 44,339 and 28,805 votes, respectively, in Jabalpur and Gwalior.
Patel, Tamarkar, Yadav, Tiwari, Tatwal, Bhargava and Malti Rai defeated their nearest rivals from the Congress - Shahnaz Ansari, Siddharth Kushwaha, Asha Mishra, Nidhi Jain, Mahesh Parmar, Sanjay Shukla and Vibha Patel - by a margin of 542, 24,916, 19,763, 12,665, 736, 1.33 lakh and around 98,000 votes, respectively, in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar, Ujjain, Indore and Bhopal, officials said.
In Indore, which has earned the tag being the "cleanest city of India", the BJP won the election with the highest number of votes.
Bhargava polled 5,92,519 votes, while Shukla, a sitting Congress MLA, secured 4,59,562 votes.
Shukla was the richest mayor candidate in MP this time.
The Class 12 passout legislator and his wife according to his affidavit own assets worth Rs 170 crore, officials said.
Bhargava has a law degree among other qualification and owns property worth Rs 2.31 crore.
In Singrauli, AAP candidate Rani Agrawal defeated her nearest BJP rival Chandrapratap Vishwakarma by a margin of 9,231 votes.
This is the first time that the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is contesting civic elections in MP.
Kejriwal had recently held a roadshow in support of Agrawal.
The two wins to the Congress in Gwalior and Jabalpur come as a morale booster to the Congress.
It is after 57 long years that the party won Gwalior mayoral post," a Congress leader said.
Besides, with the Congress' victory in Gwalior, the image of two Union ministers - Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narendra Tomar - might have taken a beating, political observers said.
It in all likelihood would give ammunition to the Congress to target Scindia.
Further, the Congress has clinched Jabalpur's top post after a gap of 18 years.
Chief Minister Chouhan termed the BJP's performance as "historic", saying that people from urban and rural areas voted in favour of the ruling party.
He said the party has won over 80 per cent seats in the nagar panchayat and nagar parishad polls and also performed very well in the 11 municipal corporations as well.
Kamal Nath said he was encouraged with the Congress's performance in the civic polls.