Jaipur:
Resort politics has returned to Rajasthan, as political parties joust to capture power in municipal corporations, councils, and municipalities to place their candidates atop important posts such as mayor and chairman. What’s making political parties nervous is the fact that the anti-defection law, the legal protection against defections, does not apply to local body elections.
The difference in seats between these parties is slim, necessitating the locking away of their winning candidates in resorts. Out of 10 municipal corporations, the BJP has secured a majority in Jaipur, Kota, Udaipur, and Bhilwara.
The Congress has won a majority in Bikaner Municipal Corporation. It has also emerged as the single-largest party in Pali and Ajmer Municipal Corporations.
Independents have emerged as the kingmakers in Bharatpur, Jodhpur, Ajmer, Alwar, and Pali.
The BJP is the single-largest party in Alwar. Of the 47 municipal councils, the BJP is the clear winner in 13, the Congress in 7 and in the other 27, the political game depends on independents.
In the smaller cities, the 252 municipalities of Rajasthan, any party can emerge triumphant. Of the 252 small towns of Rajasthan, in 142, there is no clear majority, and independents will be kingmakers.
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The BJP is the single-largest party only in 68 cities; the Congress in 42.
In this scenario, where every councillor and every vote counts, both parties have decided that the best course of action is to sequester them in resorts.
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The Dramatic Exits
The exit of 37 councillors from Ajmer has been the most dramatic stowaway exercise. Congress leader Dharmendra Rathore is believed to have flown them to an undisclosed location in Karnataka.
The Congress can easily form a local government here with 37 seats and the support of a few independents. With 32, the BJP is painfully close.
The Congress needs the help of four Independents to elect its mayor. If the BJP breaks away some of the councillors, it can have a realistic chance of frustrating the Congress’s attempts and installing its own mayor.
The BJP has also employed the same strategy to safeguard its flock. In Jaipur, the party’s 78 councillors have been living in a resort.
In Jaipur, the Congress has 57 winners. The BJP is comfortably placed here, but still, the loyalty of the winning candidates is not being taken for granted.
A recent example of the fickle nature of political affiliations is Mohammad Raees, an independent councillor from Ward 109, who decided to join hands with the BJP.
His pictures eating sweets were released on social media. A night later, he issued a video statement claiming a change of heart. “I am with the Congress. The earlier video of me with the BJP was my mistake,” he said.
Political observers are mystified as Mohammad Raees’ vote is not required by the BJP to form the government, but the outreach to every councillor shows that the parties are not taking even a single vote for granted.
Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has said that the BJP is trying to form boards by horse-trading. “I have received information from Bikaner that they are trying to contact Congress councillors; in Jodhpur, the BJP has taken away seven of our councillors, and they are paying INR 2 crore for each candidate,” he alleged.
The Jodhpur results were a cliffhanger. In Gehlot’s home turf, the BJP won 45 seats, the Congress 44. 11 Independents were to decide who would form the local government. As the Congress was busy in back-channel talks, on Friday morning, all the Independents promised support to the BJP.
Sources told NDTV that as soon as the voting was over in Jodhpur, both the BJP and the Congress whisked away their councillors.
The BJP councillors are sequestered in a hotel near the Jain pilgrimage site of Nakoda Ji and were seen singing songs with Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in a viral video. The Congress councillors have been huddled in a hotel on the outskirts of the city.
The Congress has alleged that the police are arriving at the doorstep of councillors whose loyalties can be swayed.
Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasara has alleged that the police turned up at the resort in Jaisalmer where the Bikaner councillors were kept and, on the pretext of a search, began a head count of Congress leaders.
“There are 20 such places where the police have turned up without a valid reason. The police come to the spot on the pretext of checking on people, alleging they were being confined without their consent. They said missing reports had been lodged, and they had come to check on them. It is a murder of democracy,” he said, adding that the police were being sent to pressurise the councillors.
भाजपा ने लोकतंत्र लूटने के लिए नागौर के कुचेरा को पुलिस की छावनी बना दिया है.. शर्मनाक!
सत्ता के नशे में भाजपा सरकार लोकतंत्र की सारी मर्यादाएं तार-तार करने पर उतारू है। कल कांग्रेस के अध्यक्ष प्रत्याशी तेजपाल मिर्धा जी पर हमला और पार्षदों को जबरन ले जाने के प्रयास किए गए और अब… pic.twitter.com/8RaoXrkQV8
— Govind Singh Dotasra (@GovindDotasra) September 18, 2026
Dramatic scenes unfolded outside the Congress office in Jaipur as relatives of Archana Badgujjar, a chairman candidate, said she had contested the elections on the BJP ticket and had now joined the opposition. She has since gone missing.
“The local MLA has taken our daughter-in-law away. She fought from Ward Number 14. The BJP has taken her away against her will. We are here demanding justice,” said her relative.
Home Minister Jwahar Singh Bedam has called the Congress allegations baseless.
“The Congress is disheartened. So they are levelling all sorts of allegations. People are willingly joining the BJP, and people are doing their job. If a relative files a police report saying that their relative or family member is missing, is it not the police’s job to investigate?” he said.
