2 BTP MLAs withdraw support from Congress government in Rajasthan

Jaipur: After performing poorly in local bodies elections in Rajasthan, the state Congress has suffered yet another jolt. Two Bharatiya Trible Party (BTP) legislators who were backing the Congress have withdrawn their support. BTP MLAs Rajkumar Rot and Ramprasad said that they were withdrawing the support after being by backstabbed by the Congress in zila pramukh elections in Dungarpur.

The two legislators alleged that the Congress was hand in glove with the BJP which caused their candidate Parvati to lose in zila pramukh elections by one vote. BJP candidate Surya Ahari won the elections and became the Dungarpur zila pramukh.

Senior Congress leaders including chief minister Ashok Gehlot admitted that the party fared poorly in local body elections and the results were not as expected.

“Due to our focus on containing the COVID-19, we were not able to market the public welfare schemes launched by the Congress government since it came to power. The Opposition misguided the voters. Our first priority is to control the virus spread and save lives,” said Gehlot.

In 21 districts of the state, the Congress won 252 seats of zila parishad, while the BJP grabbed 353. Hanuman Beniwal’s RLP won 10 seats, while the independents emerged victorious in 18 seats. The BJP won 1989 panchayat samiti member seats, while the Congress won 1852 of the total 4371 seats The BJP won 5, RLP 60, CPIM 26 and independents 439.

The voting for 50 civic bodies in the remaining 12 districts was underway on Friday till the reports last came in. The voting percentage was 50.07 by 1 pm. The voting is taking place in Alwar, Baran, Karauli, Dausa, Bharatpur, Jaipur, Dholpur, Sriganganagar, Jodhpur, Kota, Sawai Madhopur and Sirohi districts.