Jaipur/Kota/Jodhpur, Sept. 26 -- Rajasthan's ruling BJP scored a clean sweep in mayoral elections held on Friday across three major municipal corporations - Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota - extending its dominance to nine of the state's ten civic bodies, with the Congress holding onto one in Bikaner. In Jaipur, BJP's Sunil Kothari was elected mayor with 89 votes against Congress candidate Sunita Mawar's 60, with one vote going to NOTA. Kothari's tally exceeded his party's own councillor strength, suggesting he picked up support beyond BJP ranks to cross the majority. In Kota, BJP's Anusuiya Goswami won comfortably with 65 votes to Congress candidate Sunita Suman's 35 - a result attributed to infighting and factionalism within the Congress camp that reportedly led to cross-voting in the BJP's favour. In Jodhpur, BJP's Prasannachand Mehta edged out Congress's Rajendra Solanki 53 votes to 47. The contest was tighter on paper - BJP held 45 councillors to Congress's 44, with 10 independents and one RLP-backed councillor also in the fray - but seven independent councillors had earlier crossed over to join BJP, tilting the numbers decisively. With these results, the BJP has now won mayoral polls in Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Ajmer, Udaipur, Alwar and Pali, and secured unopposed victories in Bharatpur and Bhilwara. Congress's only mayor remains Anil Kalla in Bikaner. The Jaipur count was not without drama. Congress MLA Rafiq Khan was reportedly denied entry to the corporation building during voting and staged a sit-in protest outside along with Kishanpole MLA Amin Kagzi and Congress city president Sunil Sharma, alleging that party councillors were being blocked from casting their votes. The protest was called off after the group was persuaded to leave. Speaking after his win, Kothari said his priority would be to make life easier for Jaipur's residents while preserving the city's heritage and traditions, and pledged to protect the historic walled city (Parkota) even as sanitation would top his agenda. The mayor added that a strong opposition would help the city move forward, acknowledging ideological differences but insisting all sides wanted Jaipur's development. In Jodhpur, jubilant supporters carried Mehta out of the corporation premises on their shoulders after his win, and his daughters ran up to embrace him as his family arrived at the venue. Mehta, who has an RSS background and has held several senior BJP organisational posts - from district president to state vice-president - and is known to be close to Assam governor Gulab Chand Kataria, said fixing city's roads would be his first priority, with Diwali approaching. Kota delivered the most lopsided result. BJP had already won 57 of the corporation's wards outright, a tally that rose to 59 with the backing of two independents, while Congress had 39 ward councillors. Yet on polling day, Congress managed only 35 votes to BJP's 65 - a gap attributed again to cross-voting. New mayor Anusuiya Goswami said the corporation's doors would remain open to every worker and citizen, that the 'parchi' (favour-slip) culture would end, and that corruption would be curbed entirely. She said she would carry forward the development vision of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, and vowed to make Kota a better city than Indore. Kota South MLA Sandeep Sharma had predicted a big win before the results, saying some Congress councillors had privately indicated they would back BJP because they wanted to be seen supporting the city's development. Congress district president Rakhi Gautam countered that BJP had used political pressure to pull councillors to its side, alleging Congress leaders were kept out of the venue and stopped by police barricades. Separately, in Kota's Suket municipal council - where a Congress board had seemed all but certain in a 25-ward body - BJP's Jitendra Chopra won the chairmanship by a single vote (13 to 12) over Congress's Umardin, again amid claims of Congress infighting. Leader of the Opposition Tikaram Jully launched a sharp attack on the state government, alleging that democratic norms had not merely been bent but trampled altogether in the civic body elections, and accusing the administration of running on pressure, intimidation and political strong-arming rather than free voting. He alleged that police and administration were acting as instruments of the ruling party, applying different rules to the two main parties, and called the pattern seen in the civic polls - including Friday's Jaipur result - proof of how far BJP was willing to go to seize power. Meanwhile, BJP state president Madan Rathore, describing party workers as the "kingmakers" behind the BJP's historic victory in the urban local body elections, urged the newly elected representatives to make the party's manifesto the basis of their work and focus on the development of their urban local bodies and constituencies. He said they should work for development and upliftment in the same spirit as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma's focus on Antyodaya....