Gwalior: While the BJP has won the majority of municipal seats in the first phase of the municipal elections in Madhya Pradesh, it has suffered a defeat in Gwalior more so for union minister and Congress-turned-BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, who had extensively campaigned for the BJP's mayoral candidate Suman Sharma here.
Sharma was defeated by Congress' Shobha Sikarwar by over 26,000 votes. The BJP won seven while Congress had three municipal seats with the AAP and AIMIM also making inroads into MP in the elections. While the poll results are seen as a mixed bag for the parties, BJP's defeat in Gwalior is being seen as a psychological advantage for the Congress over its party deserter Jyotiraditya Scindia, the scion of the Scindia royal family of erstwhile Gwalior princely state who had defied the family tradition of not campaigning for the party candidate.
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The historic Municipal Corporation of Gwalior has been the seat of power in MP for the last 57 years. The Scindia family has been at the centre of the politics of the region since the 70s. The Scindia family had entered the Congress since independence in 1947 when the princely state was merged with the Government of India. But the family has never been on the roads to campaign for the candidates more so in a low-profile local body election.
Scindia defied the tradition and thoroughly campaigned for the BJP's mayoral candidate Suman Sharma while hoping for a turnaround. Sharma, however, faced a crushing defeat at the hands of Shobha Sikarwar, a close associate of former CM Digvijay Singh. Congress General Secretary in-charge of communication, Jairam Ramesh while taking a veiled dig at Scindia for the BJP's Gwalior loss, wrote in a tweet,
"Nothing made me more happy than the victory of the Congress in the Gwalior Municipal Corporation elections. Superb performance! The BJP has 'crashed' here." Reports said that there was a disagreement between Scindia and union minister Narendra Singh Tomar over the selection of candidates in the municipal polls in Gwalior.
