Jaipur: Congress candidate Bhanu Saini won the Ward 63 bypoll of JMC Heritage, but party leaders remain wary about the bigger battle in the merged Jaipur Municipal Corporation elections.Senior leader Younis Qureshi, former president of the City Congress minority cell, warned that disgruntled leaders denied BJP tickets were cutting into Congress votes. “This election shows that turncoats will eat into our vote bank if BJP refuses them tickets,” he said. Qureshi cited the case of Seema Meena, wife of BJP leader Sunil Meena, who contested as an independent after being denied a ticket. She trailed Saini by just 56 votes. “There was around 47% turnout, with 85% from Congress-dominated areas. Yet, our vote bank split significantly,” he said. Congress leaders also fear fallout from delimitation. With the merger of Heritage and Greater, JMC will have 150 wards instead of the current 250. “At least 100 leaders will be left without seats. Many will try to join BJP, but the saffron camp will field only its home children,” said Salman Mansoori, a JMC-H councillor. “These resenters will fight as independents, damaging us. Even winning 30–35 of 150 seats will be a big relief,” he added.
