Modi: Relieved

Ahmedabad, July 20: Narendra Modi finally has some reason to cheer. Three months after the Congress stole the Junagadh Lok Sabha seat from under his nose, the BJP has sprung one back, winning the municipal corporation elections by a huge margin.

The BJP has captured 35 of the 51 seats in the Junagadh municipal corporation, leaving a measly 15 for the Congress. One seat has been bagged by an Independent.

The Gujarat chief minister — hemmed in by dissidents from all sides — is so overwhelmed that he has decided to visit Junagadh tomorrow to thank its people. The Congress, jolted out of its complacency, went into a huddle in legislature party leader Amarsinh Chaudhary’s Gandhinagar house.

A senior leader suggested the Congress’ inability to project a mayoral candidate could have led to the drubbing. The rival BJP had put up sitting MLA Mahendra Mashoru, who has a clean image, for the post and the people had readily accepted him, he said.

BJP spokesman Nalin Bhatt said the victory was “very inspiring for our cadres who had got demoralised after the Lok Sabha elections because the party tally fell from 21 to 14 out of a total of 26 seats.”

Attributing the win to the BJP’s promise to provide a “corruption free administration”, he said Mashoru’s clean image and leadership qualities had proved winners.

The people might also have voted the BJP in appreciation of Junagadh being upgraded from a nagar palika to a municipal corporation, he said.

Although the victory might not have any serious implications in state politics, it is a setback of sorts for the Congress which has been on a high since the Lok Sabha elections. Conversely, it is a boost for the BJP as it indicates the party’s base in intact in bigger towns.

A section of the Congress suggested the party would have fared better had it tied up with the Nationalist Congress Party. The NCP fielded about 25 candidates in minority-dominated wards, which split non-BJP votes.

The BJP has also won Maninagar, which falls within Modi’s Assembly constituency, by a good margin. A byelection had to be held because of the death of the sitting municipal councillor.