Kailashchand, a BJP candidate from Ward 13 of Parbatsar municipality in Didwana-Kuchaman district, saw an unexpected result on Monday after the ballot box revealed that he got only a single vote in the ward.
According to the Rajasthan State Election Commission website, Kailashchand was defeated by Congress candidate Hina Khanam, who won the ward with 376 votes. Independent candidate Rashid Khan secured 195 votes and ended as runner-up.
Kailashchand has said that he lost because he wasn’t a resident of the ward he contested. In fact, he didn’t have a single family voter in that ward, including himself. While speaking to news agency PTI, Kailashchand said that he was a voter of Ward 12, but the BJP fielded him from the neighbouring Ward 13.
He added that the only vote he got was of someone from that ward, as he himself wasn’t a voter in that ward. “I got one vote. My vote is in Ward 12. I was fielded from Ward 13. Someone from that ward has voted for me,” he said.
Ward 13 result reflected in the entire Parbatsar municipality as Congress emerged victorious with 13 seats out of a total 25 wards. The BJP ended up winning 12 wards in a close contest.
Kailashchand’s result stood out as counting was still underway for 309 urban local bodies across Rajasthan, where more than 10,000 councillor posts were at stake.
Across the state, the BJP has edged past the Congress in urban local body polls, winning 3,587 wards against the opposition party’s 3,050 as results for more than 8,700 wards were declared.
Among 10 municipal corporations, the BJP clinched Udaipur, Kota and Jhalawar and emerged the single-largest party in Ajmer. Congress, on the other hand, won Pali and Bikaner and ended up as the single-largest party in Alwar.