Jodhpur: BJP and Congress have released their respective candidate lists for elections to the 100 wards of the Jodhpur Municipal Corporation, with both parties retaining several familiar faces while fielding some new candidates.Several candidates are being seen as strong contenders for the mayor’s post after Jodhpur reverted to having a single mayor for the city, replacing the earlier system of separate mayors for the North and South corporations.Among BJP’s prominent candidates are Devendra Salecha from Ward 40, a former city party president and deputy mayor considered close to MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat; Meghraj Lohiya from Ward 42, a former chairperson of Rajasthan Small Industries Corporation who held the status of a state minister and Prasan Chand Mehta from Ward 82, a former BJP vice-president.BJP has also fielded former UIT trustee Kamlesh Purohit from Ward 25. Purohit and Lohiya are considered close to former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje.Congress, meanwhile, has fielded former Jodhpur North mayor Kunti Deora from Ward 99, former Jodhpur North party president Naresh Joshi from Ward 40 and city unit president Omkar Verma from Ward 42. All three are being seen as prominent contenders for the mayor’s post.Apart from the two traditional rivals, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) has also entered the electoral contest strongly, expressing confidence about forming its board and appealing to dissidents from both BJP and Congress to join the party.RLP representative Sampat Puniya said both BJP and Congress had disappointed Jodhpur residents and claimed that his party had emerged as a fresh alternative for the city’s development and redressal of civic issues.With both BJP and Congress finalising their candidate lists, the stage is set for an intense contest for control of the Jodhpur Municipal Corporation. The civic body was earlier divided into two corporations, with the BJP holding power in one and the Congress in the other.
