Bhopal, Indore civic polls results today

BHOPAL: State BJP and Congress are all geared-up for Wednesday when results of final phase of urban civic polls will be declared. In the last two phase of polling held in November and December last year, ruling-BJP walked-away with all nine municipal corporations. But the real battle is for Bhopal and Indore – two major cities that went to polls on January 31.Jabalpur and Chhindwara are also important as they fall is senior Congress leader Kamal Nath’s areas of influence.
State capital Bhopal is not just a contest between mayoral candidates Alok Sharma of the BJP and Kailash Mishra of the Congress, but a matter of prestige and indirect political encounter between chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and senior Congress leader Suresh Pachauri. By now, voters are aware that last Saturday they have either chosen the chief minister’s childhood friend Alok Sharma or have preferred to go with former PCC chief Suresh Pachauri’s trusted aide Kailash Mishra as mayor.
Chouhan and Suresh Pachauri campaigned for their candidates extensively throughout the 85 wards. Even chief minister’s wife Sadhna Singh hit the campaign trail to garner votes for Alok Sharma. For the BJP which confidently claims it will win again, challenge is not about victory but margin. In the November 2013 assembly polls, BJP’s margin over the Congress from these 85 ward areas was around 1.5 lakh votes. Will the party be able to retain that margin or has the BJP’s vote-bank eroded since the assembly and the Lok Sabha elections?
Chhindwara has been upgraded as a municipal corporation from this election and the Congress stands its best chance of winning from here specially when former Union minister Kamal Nath personally picked his candidates for the 48 wards. BJP solely depended on sitting MLA Chandrabhan Singh. Having suffered electoral defeats in the state since 2003, a battered Congress needs to win at least one municipal corporation for a much needed morale boost. For this, Kamal Nath’s power is under test.
Urban administration minister Kailash Vijayavargiya’s political dexterity will be tried yet another time in Indore, even though mayoral candidate Malini Gaud is Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s candidate. But even as Vijayavargiya is busy in Delhi assembly polls managing AAP bastion Keshavpuram for the BJP, he was also leading the election management in Indore civic polls.
Jabalpur would be a test for BJP’s sitting MP Rakesh Singh and state BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chouhan, who campaigned there. Though Jabalpur is also considered as Kamal Nath’s domain, yet Congress could not utilise him much during campaigning.