By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
BJP might be happy about regaining power in Bihar, but the news coming out from Varanasi’s local city assembly (Zila Panchayat) poll is likely to disappoint the party.
BJP has lost the confidence vote to Samajwadi Party’s Aprajita Sonkar, who was holding the President post of the Jila panchayat.
BJP had filed for confidence vote and floor test on June 21 against Aprajita Sonkar. Aprajita has been facing tough times since last few months. His father Gyanchand Sonkar was jailed in February this year for producing fake certificates for getting government job.
Moreover, BJP members of the Panchayat were lobbying against Aprajita since the BJP bagged Uttar Pradesh in March. Even newly-elected MLAs of Varanasi were also helping members in creating a dissent atmosphere against Aprajita. Many members were accusing Aprajita of not paying attention in their areas, a allegation which Aprajita has constantly been refusing.
But BJP failed in confidence polls that were held on Friday. Sources have informed TwoCircles.net that party leadership and state government in Uttar Pradesh have taken note of this defeat. It is because the fact that BJP did not want to let any kind of leadership slip from their hands in their fort Varanasi. That is why local leadership was asked to get actively engaged in the polls.
On July 26, Sonkar filed a complaint in Human Rights Commission and National Commission for Women alleging that BJP leaders and MLAs were harassing her and her party members.
However the Panchayat poll in Varanasi was always considered to be one of the ego and caste fight in Varanasi. Jailed gangster turned MLC Brijesh Singh’s family always had influence on Panchayat polls, but in 2015 Aprajita Sonkar, who comes from the Schedule Caste community, bagged the president post. Sources inform that since the Sonkar’s win the undercurrent to uproot her was flowing, but it surfaced after BJP made the government in Uttar Pradesh.
Sonkar has termed the victory as “the win of democratic values”. BJP members refused to pass comment on the issue.