Fortune smiles on Independents

Jaipur: There is no better time to be an Independent councillor in Rajasthan with 385 such candidates winning across the state.

With about 20 municipal bodies throwing up hung board, both the BJP and Congress are wooing them assiduously. Both parties are using money, muscle power and various allurements to sway this game of power at local level in their own favour.

Sources claim that the cost of getting a councillor’s support ranges from approximately Rs 25 to Rs 50 lakh depending on the numbers required to form the board.

In Bikaner, BJP is a whisker away from power in the 80-member board. The party won 38 wards and it requires just three more councillors to from its corporation. According to sources, the party managed to win over the support of four independents to cross the majority mark.

The party leaders are now taking these councillors out of Bikaner leaving only the three claimants to the Mayor post behind. These three members of the BJP on Wednesday filed their nomination for the mayoral post. The candidates for this post are Sudha Acharya, Sunita Vyas and Sushila Kaur. This post is reserved for women for Bikaner corporation. While Kaur is said to be closely affiliated with Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal camp, the other two are said to enjoy the support of the RSS.

In Bharatpur, although BJP and Congress had a tie with 22 councillors each in the 65-member corporation, the ruling party has now taken the lead due to support from state cabinet ministers. According to insiders, state tourism minister Vishvendra Singh who is from Bharatpur, has already roped in councillors and sent them to a tour of Mathura-Vrindavan.

Similar, is the situation in other places where the parties could not get a clear mandate. The party leadership has entrusted the responsibility of mobilising numbers to the local MLAs and party leadership.