The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday won five mayoral seats in Madhya Pradesh civic body elections held earlier this month, whereas the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress won a seat each.
Of the 11 civic bodies, the BJP won mayoral seats in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar, and Ujjain. The AAP won in Singrauli and the Congress won in Chhindwara.
In the remaining four seats, the BJP and Congress mayoral candidates are leading in two municipal corporations each, according to trends.
The local bodies elections in Madhya Pradesh for 413 municipalities, including 16 Nagar Palika Nigam, 99 Nagar Palika Parishad, and 298 Nagar Parishad, were held in two phases on July 6 and 13. Under the first-phase, polling was held in 11 municipal corporations, 36 nagar palikas, and 86 nagar parishads, the counting for which began at 9 am on Sunday.
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Mayoral polls in the first phase were held in Burhanpur, Satna, Khandwa, Sagar, Singrauli, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Chhindwara, Indore, Bhopal and Ujjain.
In Burhanpur, BJP's Madhuri Patel defeated Shahnaz Ansari of Congress by a margin of 542 votes.
In Satna, BJP's Yogesh Tamarkar defeated Siddharth Kushwaha of Congress by a margin of 24,916 votes.
In Khandwa, BJP's Amrita Amar Yadav defeated Asha Mishra of Congress by a margin of 19,763 votes.
In Sagar, BJP's Sangeeta Tiwari defeated Nidhi Jain of Congress by a margin of 12,665 votes.
In Ujjain, BJP's Mukesh Tatwal defeated Mahesh Parmar of Congress by 736 votes.
In Singrauli, AAP's Rani Agrawal defeated BJP's Chandrapratap Vishwakarma by a margin of 9,231 votes.
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In Chhindwara, Congress party's Vikram Ahaka defeated his rival Anand Dhurve by 3,547 votes. Chhindwara will get a Congress mayor after 18 years.
BJP candidates are also leading in Indore and Bhopal.
In Indore, BJP's candidate Pushyamitra Bhargava has established a handsome lead of over 1 lakh votes over his nearest Congress rival Sanjay Shukla.
Likewise, BJP candidate Matli Rai is ahead of Congress rival Vibha Patel in Bhopral by a margin of 51,000 votes.
Officials said Congress candidates are leading in municipal corporations of Jabalpur and Gwalior.
In Jabalpur, Congress candidate Jagat Bahadur Singh is leading by a margin of 43,694 over BJP rival Jitendra Jamdar.
In Gwalior, Congress candidate Shobha Shikarwar is leading by a margin of 22,867.
"These two leads might come as a morale booster to the Congress. It is after 57 long years that the party is heading to win Gwalior mayoral post," said a Congress leader.
Political observers told PTI that the image of two Union ministers —Jyotiraditya Scindia and Narendra Tomar— would take a beating if Congress wins these mayoral seats. Gwalior is Scindias traditional seat.
If it happens, it would give ammunition to the Congress to target Scindia, whose rebellion in 2020 led to the fall of Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh. Scindia defected from Congress to the BJP at the time along with 22 loyalist MLAs.
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Notably, this is the first time that the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is contesting civic elections in Madhya Pradesh. The AAP has won the mayoral seat of Singrauli. Kejriwal had recently held a roadshow in support of Agrawal.
Moreover, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) registered in first electoral victory in Madhya Pradesh in these civic polls.
AIMIM candidate Shakira Bilal won the election from ward number-14 of the Khandwa Municipal Corporation by defeating her nearest Congress rival Noorjahan Begum by a margin of 285 votes, an official said.
(With PTI inputs)
