BJP, Congress neck and neck in Rajasthan panchayat polls

Jaipur, Feb 5
The BJP and the Congress were neck and neck in the panchayat elections in Rajasthan, the results of which were declared Thursday.

Elections were held for 33 zila parishads (with a total of 1,014 seats) and 6,236 panchayat samiti seats in three phases. All results are expected by Friday morning.

"The BJP won 7 and was leading in 6, while the Congress won 6 and was leading in 4 of the 23 zila parishads where either results were declared or counting was in progress till 9 p.m.," a state election commission official told IANS.

Of the total 1,014 zila parishad seats, results of 377 seats were declared by 9 p.m.

The BJP won 211 and the Congress 160, the official said.

Similarly, out of 295 panchayat samitis, the Congress either won or were leading in 109 samitis and the BJP in 137 of the 246 samitis where either results were declared or counting was in progress.

Of the 6,236 panchayat samiti seats, BJP candidates were elected on 1,418 seats and the Congress on 1,063 out of the 2,721 seats of which results were declared.

"It has been a good result for the Congress. We have improved our vote percentage significantly in comparison to the Lok Sabha polls held last year," state Congress president Sachin Pilot told IANS.

In all, 2,633 candidates contested in the zila parishads and 16,000 in the panchayat samitis.

"These results have proven that the BJP is not only an urban party, we have made our strong presence felt in rural areas too. People have voted for the development work undertaken by the Vasundhara Raje government," said state BJP president Ashok Parnami.