Dehradun: Buoyed by its victory in four out of six municipal corporations in Uttarakhand, BJP on Wednesday claimed the civic body poll verdict is an indication that they will sweep all five Lok Sabha seats in the state next year.
Thanking people for the mandate given to BJP, a jubilant pradesh party chief Tirath Singh Rawat said, "it shows we are set to bag all five parliamentary seats in the state in 2014."
"This is a bad omen for Congress. The total rejection of the party in power by people ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year does not portend well for it. It is a strong pointer to the fact that we are headed for a sweeping victory in 2014 Lok Sabha polls," Rawat told reporters here.
Traditionally, the party in power has an edge over its opponents in civic body polls but surprisingly Congress lost in all municipal corporations, he said adding this shows people`s disillusionment with the "wrong anti-people policies" of the party.
Out of the six municipal corporations which went to polls on April 28, BJP won four including Dehradun, Haridwar, Haldwani and Rudrapur whereas the remaining two Roorkee and Kashipur went to Independents. Congress lost all of them finishing second or third.
The poll was being viewed by political observers here as a dry run for 2014 general elections.
Accusing the ruling Congress of misusing money and muscle in these elections to tilt the scales in its favour, Rawat said it seems nothing worked for the party.
"Even the two municipal corporations where we lost went to Independents who entered the fray rebelling against the party after being denied tickets to contest," he said.
"The poll verdict is historic because despite being in the opposition we captured four out of the six mayoral seats and also won majority of the wards," Rawat said.
The state BJP chief mentioned party`s win in Haldwani which is considered a Congress stronghold represented in the state assembly by the senior most member of Bahuguna`s cabinet Indira Hridayesh.
"Our victory in Haldwani is remarkable as we never won there not even when it was a municipal board. It was for the first time that it went to the polls after its upgradation as a municipal corporation and it fell into our kitty," he said.
Terming BJP victory in Haridwar as impressive, he said it is the constituency of Union Minister Harish Rawat who held a door-to-door campaign in the area.
"But it seems people remained unaffected by what their MP told them to do and exercised the franchise in an objective manner ensuring the victory of the most deserving among them," the BJP leader said.
Dehradun mayor Vinod Chamoli who retained his office for a second consecutive term assured people that his effort would be to rise to their expectations.
PTI
