The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 has now turned into a direct contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Indian National Congress after two independent candidates withdrew their nominations on Tuesday, September 22. With the withdrawal deadline ending at 3 pm, BJP’s Sunil Kothari and Congress’s Sunita Gupta Mawar are the only candidates remaining in the race for the Jaipur mayor’s post.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 had initially four candidates in the fray. Along with BJP’s Sunil Kothari and Congress’s Sunita Gupta Mawar, independent candidates Sunita Methi and Dashrath Atal had submitted nomination papers. Both independents withdrew their nominations before the deadline, reducing the contest to the two major political parties.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 is scheduled for September 25 at the Jaipur Municipal Corporation headquarters in Lal Kothi. According to the election schedule, voting will take place from 10 am to 2 pm, followed by counting at the same venue. The result is expected shortly after the counting process is completed.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 will be decided by the elected councillors of the 150-member Jaipur Municipal Corporation. The final ward tally stands at 78 BJP councillors, 57 Congress councillors and 15 independents. A candidate needs 76 votes to secure a majority in the 150-member corporation.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 therefore enters its final stage with BJP holding 78 seats, two above the majority mark. Congress has 57 councillors, while the 15 independent councillors remain a separate bloc in the corporation. The arithmetic of the House will be an important factor in the mayoral voting, although the final result will depend on how councillors cast their ballots.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 gained further attention after Congress decided to field its candidate despite BJP’s majority in the corporation. Congress leaders have said that the party will participate in the election and have claimed that some BJP councillors and independents are in contact with the party. These are political claims made by Congress and have not been independently established as evidence of how councillors will vote.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 also follows the completion of the repolling process in four Jaipur wards. Congress won all four seats in the repolling held on September 17, increasing its tally from 53 to 57 councillors. BJP retained 78 seats, while independents accounted for the remaining 15 seats.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 has also drawn attention because of the difference between ward strength and overall vote totals. Congress has pointed to its vote count across the 150 wards, saying it received 5,65,848 votes compared with BJP’s 5,52,713. The party has cited this difference while explaining its decision to contest the mayoral post, although the mayor is elected by councillors rather than directly by the city’s voters.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 is being held through an indirect election system, meaning the newly elected councillors will choose the mayor. This makes the composition of the municipal corporation particularly important. Unlike a direct mayoral election in which voters select the mayor themselves, the Jaipur mayor will be determined through voting by the elected members of the civic body.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 candidates have also changed from the initial nomination stage. Sunita Methi and Dashrath Atal had initially filed their nomination papers as Congress candidates, according to the election report cited by Times of India. After Congress officially issued its election symbol to Sunita Gupta Mawar, Methi and Atal were treated as independent candidates during scrutiny. Both subsequently withdrew their nominations.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 now has Sunil Kothari representing the BJP and Sunita Gupta Mawar representing Congress. Kothari had emerged as the BJP’s mayoral candidate after the party’s internal discussions following the municipal election results. He is a councillor from Ward 112 and has previously held organisational responsibilities within the BJP.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 is also significant because Kothari’s nomination follows BJP’s strong representation in the Jaipur Municipal Corporation. BJP secured 78 of the 150 wards after the main election and subsequent repolling. The party therefore entered the mayoral contest with a numerical majority in the House.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 will also put Congress’s Sunita Gupta Mawar at the centre of the party’s effort to secure the mayor’s position despite having fewer councillors than BJP. Congress has 57 councillors, meaning the party would require support beyond its existing strength to reach the 76-vote majority required in the 150-member corporation.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 also places the 15 independent councillors in an important position in the electoral arithmetic. Their votes could become relevant to the final numbers, particularly because Congress does not have enough councillors on its own to reach the majority mark. However, the eventual voting pattern cannot be determined solely from the current seat distribution.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 comes after Rajasthan’s wider urban local body elections, which were held earlier in September. Jaipur was among the municipal corporations where repolling delayed the mayoral election. Elections for the mayoral posts in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota are scheduled for September 25, after the repolling process was completed.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 is part of a larger series of mayoral contests taking place across Rajasthan. Mayor elections have already been held in several other municipal corporations, including Ajmer, Alwar, Bharatpur, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Pali and Udaipur. Jaipur, Jodhpur and Kota are scheduled to hold their mayoral elections on September 25.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 has gained additional political significance because of the recent results from other Rajasthan civic bodies. In the mayoral elections held on September 21, BJP won six of seven major municipal corporation mayoral posts where results were declared, while Congress secured the mayor’s post in Bikaner. These results form part of the wider political backdrop to the remaining Jaipur contest, but they do not determine its outcome.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 will also be watched because the municipal corporation controls a range of civic responsibilities affecting residents. The Jaipur Municipal Corporation is responsible for areas including sanitation, waste management, local roads, public facilities and other urban civic services. The mayor’s role involves working with the elected House and municipal administration on these issues.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 has also brought attention to the role of party discipline and councillor coordination. Both BJP and Congress will need to maintain communication with their councillors before the September 25 vote. While BJP currently has the numerical advantage, Congress has indicated that it intends to contest rather than leave the post uncontested.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 will be conducted after the final withdrawal of nominations, meaning there will be no independent candidate on the ballot for the mayoral post. The withdrawal of Sunita Methi and Dashrath Atal has simplified the candidate list, leaving voters within the electoral college with two names to consider: Sunil Kothari and Sunita Gupta Mawar.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 is therefore moving from the nomination phase to the final voting stage. The September 22 withdrawal deadline has closed, and no further candidate withdrawals are expected under the current schedule. The focus will now shift to the councillors who will participate in the September 25 election.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 will also provide an early indication of how the newly constituted Jaipur Municipal Corporation functions after the 2026 urban local body elections. The mayor will have to work with a House containing councillors from BJP, Congress and the independent bloc, making coordination within the corporation an important part of the new civic administration.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 is scheduled to begin with polling at 10 am on September 25. Voting will continue until 2 pm, and counting is scheduled to begin immediately afterward at the Jaipur Municipal Corporation headquarters in Lal Kothi. The result is expected to be announced around 3 pm, according to the reported election schedule.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 has thus reached a clearly defined two-candidate stage. BJP’s Sunil Kothari and Congress’s Sunita Gupta Mawar are the final candidates after the withdrawal of the two independents. With 150 councillors forming the electoral college, the September 25 vote will determine who takes charge as Jaipur’s next mayor.
For the Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026, the key facts at this stage are the final candidate list, the 150-member House composition and the September 25 voting schedule. BJP has 78 councillors, Congress has 57 and independents have 15. The majority mark is 76, while the final result will be determined through the councillors’ votes on election day.
The Jaipur Mayoral Election 2026 will conclude the current phase of Jaipur’s municipal election process after the completion of ward elections, repolling and mayoral nominations. With the independent candidates now out of the race, attention has shifted entirely to the BJP-Congress contest and the voting decisions of the elected councillors. The mayoral result is scheduled to be declared on September 25 after polling and counting.
