BJP downplays Congress victory in Kota

Bilaspur, Dec 7 (UNI) Giving a severe drubbing to the ruling BJP, Congress retained the Kota Assembly seat in Chhattisgarh with its candidate Dr Renu Jogi, wife of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi, defeating her BJP rival Bhupendra Singh Thakur by a margin of 21,258 votes in the December 4 byelection, the result of which was announced today.

The bypoll result coincides with Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh completing three years in office today.

Reacting to the poll outcome, Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh sought to downplay the BJP defeat in Kota assembly by-election saying it was not a 'referendum' on the performance of his three-year-old government.

Admitting that complaints regarding the public distribution system (PDS) was one of the issues that came up during the campaign, he said his government would take steps to analyse the reasons for the BJP defeat.

Pointing out that Kota constituency had been a traditional stronghold of the Congress, the Chief Minister said the Congress had been continuously winning in all the elections held since 1952.

"We came to power for five years, defeating Congress and Mr Jogi's government. Now two more years are left for the next elections", he said, adding "we will make all efforts to address the problems".

Chhattisgarh Pradesh Congress Committee (CPCC) President Charan Das Mahant said the BJP had lost its moral right to continue in power as its crushing defeat in the by-election had brought to focus its failures in governance.

Mr Mahant, however, denied that the CPCC and other senior leaders had opposed Mrs Jogi's candidature saying they had favoured that the son of late Mr Rajendra Prasad Shukla, who had represented the constituency, be fielded from Kota constituency.

Asked whether these leaders now accept the leadership of former chief minister Mr Ajit Jogi, the CPCC President evaded a direct reply saying "leaders like Mr Motilal Vora and Mr Shyama Charan Shukla were also former chief ministers. Congress will work under collective leadership of its leaders".

UNI XC JJ SP 1317