Civic polls: Creditable performance by Cong.

By Our Special Correspondent

JAIPUR, AUG. 25. The Gehlot Government in Rajasthan has crossed a psychological barrier by capturing power in 60 of 126 civic bodies to which elections were held on Sunday. The smooth conduct of the elections, which involved 29.82-lakh urban electorate spread over 30 districts of the State and the creditable performance of the party should keep the detractors of the Chief Minister, at bay for some time.

Mr. Gehlot has been lucky with the electorate since he became Chief Minister in 1998 after the party won a three-fourth majority in the Assembly. Barring the Lok Sabha elections when the Congress suffered a setback mostly due to the agitation by the Jat community, the Congress had won in both the civic elections held in 1999, and the panchayat elections held early this year.

Good performance by the ruling party in these elections is viewed with surprise by political analysts as these victories have been achieved under difficult situations. The previous year's civic election was the first urban verdict of the kind for the Congress and that way it was a surprise. In the panchayat election the element of surprise was due to the fact that the Government could hold the elections even when its six-lakh employees were on an indefinite strike.

The present outcome, which is creditable if one compares the party performance in 1995 elections, too has an element of surprise as it took place at the worst of the times. Mr. Gehlot, who often resorts to the plea that his Government was given such a majority in the House by the people for strong action in the interest of the State, this time faced the electorate at the end of a long charade of non-populist decisions.

The decisions include the unbundling of the Rajasthan State Electricity Board (RSEB) which has brought fears in the minds of the consumers and the 60,000 employees of the Board. Then there are unpleasant steps being carried out by the Government on removal of encroachments from public land, pruning of the government staff through VRS, and curtailment of expenses in Government - which is generally despised by the staff.

The State has just come out of one of the worst drought conditions. If people had accepted the Opposition criticism that the Government did not handle the relief operations properly then the results of the civic elections should have been different - at least in the affected areas.

The Government has been unmindful of the ``warnings'' from the opinion makers about its recent decisions related to public health like ban on smoking at public places and stipulation on use of helmets for riders of two wheelers. The public seemed to have responded favourably to them as well.

The ruling party, of course, gets the psychological advantage in civic and panchayat elections as the people have the notion that the civic bodies need the support of the State Government to undertake development programmes. Again, the Congressmen need not pat one another on the back on the present result as they did not show much unity or discipline.

The BJP which had its boards formed in 71 civic bodies in the previous elections in 1995 this time had to be contended with 49 municipal bodies. The party may perhaps find consolation in the fact that it has been credited with winning in more wards than the Congress(I) after a revision of the tally by the State Election Commission. On the first day of results the Commission had declared the Congress party as winner in 999 wards. The BJP tally was kept at 981.

However on the next day, the Commission revised its figures to say that there was a miscalculation due to which more wards were credited to the ruling party. The faux paus was due to the election office mistaking a few ``IND'' marks on the fax sheets came from the districts (which stands for Independents) as ``INC'' (Indian National Congress).

The Congress score is finally put at 969 which is 30 less than what was announced earlier. The BJP too lost three wards but was placed at 978 wards - that is nine wards more than the Congress(I). The gainers are the Independents whose tally has gone up from 723 to 757.

The BJP did well in the two municipal councils - Ajmer and Bhilwara - by capturing power in these bodies perhaps proving once again that in bigger towns and cities,the party's support base in intact. This is again evident from the good performance the party had in the civic bodies falling in Jaipur district.

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