Raipur: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made a resounding comeback in Chhattisgarh’s civic body elections, securing strong leads across 10 municipal corporations. As the vote counting across 173 civic bodies in 33 districts nears completion, the saffron party is poised for a decisive victory.
Marking its return in Raipur after 15 years, BJP’s Meenal Chaubey registered a massive win over Congress’s Deepti Dubey by more than 1.5 lakh votes. In Durg, BJP’s Alka Baghmar defeated Congress candidate Premlata Poshan Sahu by a margin of 67,000 votes, while in Bilaspur, BJP’s Pooja Vidhani secured victory over Congress’s Pramod Nayak by 66,179 votes.
Other major wins for BJP include:
- Korba: Sanju Devi Rajput defeated Congress’s Usha Tiwari by 52,000 votes.
- Raigarh: Jeevvardhan Chauhan won against Congress’s Janki Katju by 34,365 votes.
- Rajnandgaon: Madhusudan Yadav beat Congress’s Nikhil Dwivedi with a margin of 43,500 votes.
- Ambikapur: Manjusha Bhagat secured victory over Congress’s Dr. Ajay Tirki by 11,063 votes.
- Chirmiri: Ramnaresh Rai won against Congress’s Vinay Jaiswal by 4,000 votes.
- Jagdalpur: BJP’s Sanjay Pandey defeated Congress’s Malkit Singh Gaidu by 8,772 votes.
- Dhamtari: BJP’s Jagdish Ramu Mehra won unopposed after the Congress candidate’s nomination was canceled.
As BJP celebrated its electoral success, Deputy CM Shiv Pratap Singh was seen dancing with party workers in Lormi, while BJP leader Rajesh Munat joined the celebrations in Raipur.
Meanwhile, Congress suffered setbacks across several key constituencies. Former Raipur mayor Ejaz Dhebar lost the councilor election by 1,500 votes. However, Congress managed a narrow victory in one close contest, where Reema defeated BJP’s Champa Jaiswal by just 44 votes.
