Jaipur: High turnout in wards falling under Congress-held assembly segments has lifted the party’s hopes of capturing the unified Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) board for the first time in 32 years.Overall polling Friday stood at about 65%, but the pattern varied sharply across constituencies. Amer led with 81.45% voting, followed by Adarsh Nagar at 72.20%, Hawa Mahal at 68.65% and Kishanpole at 67.44%. At the other end, Civil Lines polled 57.28%, Sanganer 57.85% and Malviya Nagar 57.86%.Election officials said the JMC area is spread fully or partly across 10 assembly constituencies. Seven are represented by BJP MLAs and three by Congress legislators.“Average turnout in six BJP-held constituencies remained below the citywide figure, while turnout in the three Congress constituencies, along with Hawa Mahal, exceeded it. Though Hawa Mahal has a BJP MLA, it includes a sizeable Muslim electorate, and a strong Congress support base,” an official said.Congress workers interpret the gap as evidence that their booth-level machinery brought out supporters more effectively than BJP. The party now believes the turnout trend could help it deny BJP a majority and open a path to board formation.Adarsh Nagar MLA Rafeek Khan said the four high-turnout constituencies account for 47 wards and the Congress expects to win at least 40 of them. “If we secure another 30 seats from the remaining six constituencies, we will reach around 70 wards. BJP will then fall short of the magic figure, especially as nearly 20 independents are likely to win,” he said.Despite low turnout in BJP dominated constituencies, the saffron camp is still seeing a favourable equation. They believe urban wards with thinner polling can still yield enough victories to counter Congress advances in minority pockets and traditional strongholds.“Low polling was also recorded in mixed and minority areas, while BJP successfully mobilised its core voters, projecting 85 to 90 councillors in the civic contest,” stated former JMC (Greater) deputy mayor Puneet Karnawat.
