BJP conducts postmortem of defeat in Shimla MC Election, alleges Congress rigged poll by misusing state machinery

BJP conducts postmortem of defeat in Shimla MC Election, alleges Congress rigged poll by misusing state machinery

Shimla, May 5

Following its recent defeat in the Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) election, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) conducted a postmortem, stating that the Congress had rigged the poll by misusing the state machinery to shift votes from the outskirts and other assemblies to the main town, which is a bastion of the BJP. The party accepted that it did not perform well in the heart of town, resulting in its poor performance in Urban Shimla.

Former BJP Minister Sukhram Chowdhary issued a press release thanking all party workers and claiming that the party had performed well in the polls, receiving 40.58% of the 55,662 polled votes. The statement acknowledged that if Congress had not received a large number of votes in Shimla Urban, the result could have been different, as the BJP performed well in the rest of the two constituencies.

The BJP alleged that Congress had shifted its votes from the outskirts of the main town and had even locked the out-houses of ministers to shift their votes from the assembly segment to the polling in Shimla MC. Despite this, the party claimed that it performed well in many wards, with candidates losing by a small margin.

The BJP claimed an unexpected victory in Congress bastion Bharari in ward no-1, with a six percent vote share and a winning margin of 382 votes. However, the party lost in Kalini ward by a thin margin of eight votes. The BJP pointed out that there were several other wards where the margin of victory was small.

The BJP targeted Congress Minister Anirudh Singh, stating that the party had won five wards in the Kasumpti assembly constituency, including New Shimla, Patyog, Upper Dhali, Kasumpti, and Panthaghati. The party further alleged that Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, his ministers, and CPS had tried to rig the election, as they did not want to face defeat at any cost, and had shifted their votes to Shimla assembly constituency to impact the election in their favour. The BJP also stated that the Congress had misused government machinery to influence the poll, which was the major reason for the Congress party gaining power in the Municipal Corporation.