Why BJP's sweep in Rajasthan civic polls should worry Vasundhara Raje

The results of Rajasthan municipal elections have been declared and it has a mixed message for all key players - BJP, Congress and chief minister Vasundhara Raje. According to reports, of the 129 civic bodies, the ruling party won 67, main opposition Congress got 33, others bagged 18 while there was tie between BJP and Congress on 11 bodies. Going by seats, of the total 3351, BJP bagged 1442, Congress 1164 and others 745.

The BJP certainly has reasons to cheer over the results. It won maximum number of seats despite the elections being held on August 17, just four days after monsoon session of Parliament adjourned sine die without transacting any meaningful business due to the unprecedented ruckus created by Congress over Lalit Modi controversy.

For over the past couple of months the Lalit Modi saga has been in headline in mainstream and social media, and Raje, besides Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, has been in the eye of the storm for her alleged association with the former IPL commissioner, who hails from the same state. BJP's performance is surely commendable as it has been able to win the maximum number of seats under these adverse circumstances.

Though the verdict is in favour of the BJP, it is clearly against Raje personally and her son Dushyant Singh, who is a BJP Lok Sabha MP from Jhalawar-Baran in the state. The mother-son duo has been accused by Congress of having conflict of interest and indulging in quid pro quo in their links with Lalit Modi.

The Congress has been successful in inflicting severe damage on Raje and Singh. It is evident from the fact that BJP lost in Jhalrapatan municipality and after a gap of more than 15 years. Jhalrapatan is Raje's Assembly constituency. The BJP lost the Jhalawar and Baran municipal councils too - Lok Sabha constituency of Raje's son.

Unmindful of defeat in majority of the seats, Congress was quick to declare victory on the basis of the results in areas where Raje and Singh hold sway. Rajasthan Congress unit president Sachin Pilot claimed that his party had comprehensively defeated BJP in Raje's strong hold and that there less than one per cent difference between vote shares of the two parties.

Congress comprehensively defeated BJP in Vasundhara Raje's strong hold: Sachin Pilot on Rajasthan civic poll results. pic.twitter.com/Zn29ln9hqJ

— INC India (@INCIndia) August 20, 2015

While highlighting Congress' victory in the CM and her son's constituencies, Pilot, however, hid the fact that his party lost miserably in his stronghold of Ajmer. BJP bagged 31 seats, Congress 22 and others seven in the 60-seat Ajmer Municipal Corporation.

Pilot had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Ajmer but lost to BJP's Sanwar Lal Jat. Congress' defeat in Ajmer Municipal Corporation is as humiliating for Pilot as it is for Raje and Singh in Jhalrapatan, Jhalawar and Baran because he is a former Union minister and also the president of Congress state unit. Moreover, he has inherited the political legacy of former Union minister late Rajesh Pilot.

The BJP may heave a sigh of relief over the Rajasthan civic poll results, which come after its victory in the recently held civic elections in Madhya Pradesh, where chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in the dock over Vyapam scam and mysterious deaths surrounding it. But Raje, her son Dushyant and Pilot surely need to do a lot of introspection.