Local election victory for Communist Party of India (Marxist)

The CPI(M) won 29 of the total 45 seats. The nationally ruling BJP secured 13 seats, while independent candidates won the remaining three seats. With this historic victory, the CPI(M) has taken control of the Nokha Municipality, which had been ruled alternately by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for years. 

Left Views reports that according to the results available from the State Election Commission, the CPI(M) has so far secured 38 municipal seats across the state. The party has won one seat in Sri Ganganagar, two in Hanumangarh, one in Jhunjhunu, where a Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) Secretariat member Sandeep Jingar has won, three in Sikar and one in Udaipur, apart from its sweeping victory in Nokha.

For the CPI(M), the Nokha result is both a local victory and an indication of the political space opening up to the party in parts of Rajasthan. According to The Indian Express, state secretary Kishan Parikh attributed the result to anger against the BJP and the CPI(M)’s sustained campaign around civic and economic issues.

“We have been raising the local issues and they saw CPM as a strong alternative and voted for us,” Parikh said.

He argued that the party’s appeal went beyond local grievances. “If there is a party which can fight for economic issues and against communal politics, it is the CPM,” he said.

“There was immense anger against the BJP and there is no Congress. So, the people chose CPI(M) as a political alternative for constitutional principles,” Parikh added.

The CPI(M) had fielded 192 candidates across Rajasthan. Parikh said even victories in one or two wards were important because they represented an entry point for the party into local bodies where it could build a longer-term political presence.

The Nokha result also fits into a broader pattern of the CPI(M) retaining or expanding its relevance in parts of Rajasthan.

(Photo: Left Views)