Jaipur: The BJP returned to power in Rajasthan Sunday, winning 115 seats out of the 199 where assembly elections were held last week.
The Congress, which was hoping to buck the trend of the incumbent being voted out in the state every five years, bagged 68 seats. The final result of only one seat was awaited and the Congress was leading by a narrow margin there.
According to the assembly poll results available on the Election Commission website, the Bharat Adivasi Party won three seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party two, and Rashtriya Lok Dal and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party one each. Eight seats were won by Independents.
Polling in 199 of the state’s 200 seats were held November 25. The election in Sriganganagar’s Karanpur seat was postponed due to the death of the Congress candidate.
Former chief minister and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje won from the Jhalrapatan seat. Among the other BJP candidates who won were Diya Kumari from Vidhyadhnagar, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore from Jhotwara, Samaram from Pindwara Abu, Govind Prasad from Manohar Thana, Jaswant Singh Yadav from Behror, Mahendra Pal Meena from Jamwa Ramgarh, Anita Bhadel from Ajmer South, and Madan Dilawar from Ramganj Mandi.
The Congress candidates who secured victory included Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot from Sardarpura, Sachin Pilot from Tonk, Shanti Dhariwal from Kota North, Tikaram Jully from Alwar Rural, and Anita Jatav from Hindaun.
Assembly Speaker C P Joshi of the Congress lost the election from Nathdwara to the BJP’s Vishvaraj Singh Mewar. Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas lost the Civil Lines assembly seat to BJP candidate Gopal Sharma by a margin of 28,329 votes.
Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly and BJP candidate Satish Poonia lost the Amber seat to the Congress’ Prashant Sharma by a margin of 9,092 votes.
Several ministers, including Govind Ram Meghwal, lost the assembly elections. Meghwal, who was also the Congress’ campaign committee chief, was defeated by BJP’s Vishwanath Meghwal in Khajuwala.
The other Congress ministers who lost the elections included Bhanwar Singh Bhati from Kolayat seat, Shakuntala Rawat (Bansur), Vishvendra Singh (Deeg Kumher), Ramesh Chand Meena (Sapotara), Shale Mohammad (Pokaran), and Udailal Anjana (Nimbahera).
Four of seven BJP MPs who fought the Rajasthan Assembly elections won their respective seats while three others lost the polls.
The BJP had fielded Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari, Jaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Ajmer MP Bhagirath Choudhary, Alwar MP Baba Balak Nath, Jhunjhunu MP Narendra Kumar, Jalore MP Devji Patel and Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena.
Diya Kumari, member of erstwhile Jaipur royal family, won Vidhyadhar Nagar seat with a huge margin of 71,368 votes. She defeated Congress candidate Sitaram Agarwal.
Alwar MP Baba Balak Nath, who contested the elections from Tijara seat, won with a margin of 6,173 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Imran Khan.
Rajya Sabha MP Meena also won the Sawai Madhopur seat with a margin of 22,510 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Danish Abrar, who was the advisor to outgoing Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
The three BJP MPs who lost the assembly polls included Narendra Kumar (Mandawa seat), Bhagirath Choudhary (Kishangarh) and Devji Patel (Sanchore).
Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) convener and Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal also won from the Khinwsar assembly constituency by defeating BJP candidate Rewant Ram with a narrow margin of 2,059 votes.
Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) candidates Rajkumar Roat, Thavar Chand and Umesh Meena won from Chorasi, Dhariawad and Aspur constituencies, respectively.
BSP candidates Jaswant Singh Gurjar and Manoj Kumar won from Bari and Sadulpur seats, respectively.
The victorious independent candidates were Ashok Kumar Kothari (Bhilwara), Chandrabhan Singh Chouhan (Chittorgarh), Jiva Ram Choudhary (Sanchore), Priyanka Chowdhary (Barmer), Ravindra Singh Bhati (Sheo), Yoonus Khan (Deedwana), Ritu Banawat (Bayana), and Ganeshraj Bansal (Hanumangarh).
Counting of votes polled in the November 25 assembly elections in Rajasthan got underway at 8 am amid tight security arrangements.
A total of 36 counting centres have been set up for the 199 assembly constituencies.
As many as 1,862 candidates are in the fray for 199 seats.
While 30 election districts have one counting centre, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Nagaur have two centres each. “All District Election Officers, Police Commissioners and Superintendents of Police have been instructed to strictly follow the security protocol at the counting centre,” a senior poll panel official said.
After the results were announced, Chief Minister Gehlot tendered his resignation to the governor.
Earlier, he said the assembly poll results were “unexpected for everyone” and added the party humbly accepted the people’s mandate.
In a post on X, he said, “We humbly accept the mandate given by the people of Rajasthan. This is an unexpected result for everyone. This defeat shows that we were not completely successful in taking our plans, laws and innovations to the public.”
As the counting of votes progressed, senior BJP leader and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat took a jibe at Gehlot, saying people have come out of the spell of the “magician”.
“The ‘magic’ has ended and Rajasthan has come out of the spell of the magician. People have voted for the honour of women and for the welfare of the poor,” he said. Gehlot was born into a family of magicians and assisted his father during his tours.
PTI
