Poll results show support for BJP is narrowing down across Raj: Dotasra
JAIPUR, Sept. 15 -- Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra on Monday said the urban local body election results showed the BJP's support base was narrowing, with the ruling party leading Congress by just one percentage point in vote share.
Addressing a press conference at the Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters, Dotasra said the BJP polled 35.35% of votes across 10,100 wards, against 34.35% for Congress.
Dotasra said the BJP-Congress vote-share gap was around 8.12 percentage points during 2014-16 under the Vasundhara Raje government. He claimed the BJP's vote share had fallen from 41.60% in the Assembly elections and 50.14% in the Lok Sabha elections to 35.35% in the civic polls.
"This election has shown that the gap which used to be around eight percentage points has now come down to around one," he said, attributing the results to public dissatisfaction with the Bhajan Lal Sharma government.
He alleged irregularities in delimitation had affected Congress's tally, claiming the party could have won around 1,000 more wards.
Citing Jaipur, he pointed to differences in ward populations, ranging from around 13,408 to 25,272, and alleged similar discrepancies in Karauli and other cities.
Dotasra cited Congress's performance in reserved wards. He said Congress won 542 SC-reserved wards against BJP's around 350, and 53 ST-reserved wards against 39 for BJP.
In SC women-reserved wards, Congress won 261 against BJP's 186.
He alleged none of Congress's 1,316 recounting requests was accepted and results in several close contests were delayed.
On major cities, Dotasra said Congress won 37 of Ajmer's 80 wards against BJP's 35, while in Bikaner it won 42. In Jodhpur, he said Congress secured 42.7% of votes against BJP's 39.8%, yet both parties won an equal number of seats.
Calling the results a "trailer" for the 2028 Assembly elections, Dotasra said Rajasthan was "no longer a one-sided contest"....
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