Jaipur, March 8: In a major setback to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Rajasthan, the Congress emerged victorious in the Local Body Election in the state on Wednesday. Congress won four of the six Zila Parishad (ZP) seats in bypolls that were held across the state, while BJP managed to get only one seat in ZP.  The Congress also bagged 12 of the 20 panchayat Samiti seats and four of the six municipal seats.

The strong win comes days after the Congress scored emphatic victories in the bypolls to two Parliamentary and an assembly constituency. As per reports by PTI, the ruling BJP managed to win just one Zila Parishad seat, eight panchayat Samiti seats and two municipal body seats in Rajasthan.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has accepted the defeat in bypolls on parliamentary and assembly constituencies. It must be noted that Independent candidates won one Zila Parishad and one Panchayat Samiti seats. Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot was quoted by PTI saying that the result indicated a certain ouster of the BJP from the state.

He said it is a yet another victory of party workers. “In the last four years, the BJP has exploited people of the state due to its anti-people policies”, Pilot further added. The Congress leader further added that the Congress voting percentage has increased in all the elections held in last four years whereas the BJP had to face debacles.

The result of panchayati raj institutions and local bodies declared has indicated farewell of BJP from the state. Pilot claimed that in the assembly elections due by the end of this year, a similar result would follow.

The last Rajasthan Bye-Elections held in 2014 also proved a big blow for BJP. The ruling BJP lost in three of the four seats. The polls were held on 21 August where four constituencies where polling took place are Nasirabad, Weir, Kota (South) and Surajgarh Assembly constituencies. The Congress won the Weir, Surajgarh and Nasirabad seats, while the BJP was able to get hold of the Kota South seat. Congress's Ramnarayan was chosen the MLA from Nasirabad, Sharwan Kumar from Surajgarh and Bhajanlal from Weir. The BJP MLA from Kota South is Sandeep Sharma.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 08, 2018 10:33 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).