Aug 20 (India Today) : The ruling BJP is comfortable ahead of its main rival, the Congress, in the Rajasthan civic body elections winning 62 of the 113 municipal corporations. The Congress has won 25 and the independents 17 until this report was filed.

Moreover, in a setback for Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, the Congress won two seats in her Assembly constituency, Jhalawar, a victory that gave the Sonia Gandhi-led party a reason to gloat about. "The Congress comprehensively defeated the BJP in Vasundhara Raje's stronghold," Congress leader from Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot, said.

"Till now the BJP took the middle class vote for granted. This time, they have also voted for the Congress," Pilot added, claiming that there is "less than one per cent" difference between the vote share of the BJP and the Congress. However, Pilot himself has little to be cheerful about with the Congress losing in Ajmer, his stronghold.

Results for 2134 wards of the total 3351 wards have been announced so far and the counting is going on, the state election commission's spokesperson said. The BJP won 891 wards, the Congress bagged 770, the independents 456 whereas the BSP, CPI and CPM got 12, four and one seats respectively.

The August 17 election for 129 civic bodies in the state had witnessed a record polling of 76.19 per cent.