Jaipur: Rajasthan recently conducted municipal elections in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota to choose councillors for 560 wards at six municipal corporations – Jaipur Heritage (100 wards), Jaipur Greater (150 wards), Jodhpur North (80 wards, Jodhpur South (80 wards), Kota North (70 wards) and Kota South (80 wards).The tally of wards won by the Congress stood at 261, while for the opposition Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in the state it stood at 242. Fifty-seven wards went to others.The Congress secured a clear majority in Jodhpur North and Kota North. In Jodhpur North it won 53 wards, while BJP managed to secure a win over a mere 19 wards. In Kota North, the Congress won 47 wards while the BJP could win just 19 wards.The BJP, too, has a clear majority in two municipal corporations – Jaipur Greater and Jodhpur South. In Jaipur Greater, it won 88 wards while the Congress managed to win 49 wards. In Jodhpur South, the BJP won 43 wards and the Congress tally stood at 29.In the two remaining municipal corporations, Jaipur Heritage and Kota South, both the Congress and the BJP could not secure a clear majority. However, the Congress score has been better than the BJP’s.In Jaipur Heritage, the Congress won 47 wards while the BJP managed to win 42 wards. Eleven wards were won by other candidates not affiliated to these parties.In Kota South, both the Congress and the BJP won an equal number of wards, 36 each. Others won 8 wards.Both the Congress and the BJP are viewing the mixed results as their own victory.The Congress is interpreting the results as a support to the Ashok Gehlot government, especially after the ruling Congress party witnessed an intense showdown between Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot that went on for more than a month.There were speculations that the infighting between the top leadership had hampered the image of the Congress party in the public eye. The BJP even made it a key focus during its election campaign.जयपुर, जोधपुर और कोटा नगर निगम चुनाव के नतीजे सुखद हैं। तीनों निगमों में हुए कुल मतदान में से कांग्रेस पार्टी को 40.09 प्रतिशत वोट मिले हैं जोकि बीजेपी से लगभग 2.5 प्रतिशत अधिक हैं। मतदाता एवं कार्यकर्ताओं का आभार एवं धन्यवाद और कांग्रेस पार्टी के विजयी प्रत्याशियों को बधाई।— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) November 3, 2020As soon as the results were declared, chief minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted, “The results of Jaipur, Kota and Jodhpur municipal elections are satisfying. Out of the total voting in the three municipal corporations, the Congress party has secured 40.09& votes, which is almost 2.5% more than the votes secured by the BJP. I thank the voters and workers and congratulate the winning candidates of the Congress party.”The Congress has claimed that it will still form the Board in four out of the six municipal corporations. “Congress’s graph is constantly rising. The public has put a stamp of approval on the Congress government’s developmental works undertaken in the last two years,” said Congress Rajasthan PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasara.Also read: Rajasthan Farm Bills: Here’s How They’re Different From the Central ActsHowever, the BJP says that Congress has no reason to be happy about the result and the BJP has no reason to despair.“It has been a tradition in Rajasthan that the public votes in favour of the ruling party but here, the opposite has happened. Congress had claimed that it will win all the six municipal corporations but it won only two,” said BJP state president Satish Poonia.Interestingly, in this election, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), a BJP ally in Rajasthan, didn’t form an alliance with the BJP and contested the polls on its own.The Jaipur and Kota municipal corporations were considered the BJP’s strongholds, and the Congress assumed fair chances of winning in Jodhpur because of it being Gehlot’s home turf.However, the result shows that the Congress has improved its performance in Jaipur and Kota by winning one of the municipal corporations in Kota and having a higher tally than BJP in one of the municipal corporations in Jaipur.In Jodhpur, the Congress did not get a majority in Jodhpur South because of the presence of Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. He had previously defeated Gehlot’s son Vaibhav during the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 from Jodhpur.The elections were held in two phases – October 29 and November 1. In the first phase of the elections, 250 wards went to polling which included 100 wards of Jaipur Heritage, 80 words of Jodhpur North and 70 wards of Kota North. The administration set up 2,761 polling stations.In the second phase, 310 wards went to polling including 150 wards of Jaipur Greater, 80 wards of Jodhpur South and 80 wards of Kota South. 3,211 polling stations were set up in the second phase.The elections for the posts of mayors will held on November 10 and for the posts of deputy mayors on November 11.