Jaipur: The upcoming municipal polls in Jaipur have witnessed a record number of Independent candidates as 953 filed their nomination papers Tuesday.The rush follows a major restructuring of the Jaipur Municipal Corporation, where the number of wards has been cut from 250 to 150. Of 1,253 nominees across these wards, 953 filed as Independents before scrutiny. Now, 812 Independents are set to contest the polls finally. This tally is higher than in 2020, when 575 Independents contested across 250 wards in the two civic bodies, JMC-Greater and JMC-Heritage.Political analysts point to a compressed electoral map, reservation changes and aggressive ticket reshuffling by parties. Fifty of the 150 wards are reserved for women. In 2020, JMC-Heritage had 33 women-reserved seats, while JMC-Greater had 50. The reduced ward count has narrowed opportunities for male aspirants.Vijay Singh, who filed a nomination as a Congress candidate, said each party had space to select 167 male candidates in 2020, but in 2026 the number fell to a maximum of 100.“To add on, the two biggest contenders – the BJP and the Congress – have selected a huge number of fresh faces this year. This has increased the infighting and led to a record number of independent candidates,” stated Singh, whose nomination got rejected after Congress fielded another candidate from his ward.BJP had 139 councillors across the two bodies in 2020, but only 24 have been renominated; 115 have been denied tickets. Congress, which won 88 seats, has repeated just 16 candidates and dropped 72. Of the 23 independents who won in 2020, only three have received party tickets this time.“Overall, out of 250 winners from the 2020 elections, just 43 (17.2%) received repeat tickets, while 207 (82.8%) were not repeated. Where would the left-out candidates go? Most of them have either filed nominations themselves, or asked close relatives to contest as independent candidates,” said former councillor Naresh Nagar, who is not contesting this time owing to ward reservation issues.
