Cong to challenge Ajmer mayor elections in high court

Accusing the Rajasthan government of "manufacturing" victory through "manipulation" in the recent civic body polls, Congress today said it will adopt a multi-pronged strategy against BJP by challenging the Ajmer mayor election in the high court and state Election Commission besides launching a mass public campaign.
"We are going to the high court and also the State Election Commission in a day or two, challenging the Ajmer mayor's election," state Congress Chief Sachin Pilot said.
A mass contact program will also be launched by the party soon, he said.
"As a party, we have broken the myth that urban middle class people are BJP's fiefdom. To state that they have forged ahead is a fallacy. In the entire state, out of 3,351 wards the BJP won only 1,441 and Congress was close behind by winning 1,164 of them.

"This is not a huge difference keeping in view that BJP has all 25 MPs and 163 seats in the assembly and has four more years to rule in the state," Pilot told PTI in an interaction.
He said "the Lalit Modi issue certainly has stuck to the public. Besides the Lalit Modi controversy, negative perception against the government on the land bill and issues of corruption and black money have also contributed to such close results."

He said BJP has lost in the constituencies of the chief minister, her MP son, home minister, 11 other ministers and Dhaulpur where their controversial palace stands, and asked Vasundhara Raje to step down as she has "lost a moral right to be in power".

The PCC chief added that the BJP after coming to power had removed the anti-defection law in civic bodies and also done away with the direct election of civic body chiefs by people.
He alleged that this move helped the ruling BJP to give threats and allurements to encourage cross voting and election of its candidates as civic body chiefs.