Tag: Balwan Poonia

Congress Will Now Rule Rajasthan, But BJP Gave it a Tough Fight

The question of who will take the top post is now echoing in the state.

Jaipur: The Congress party won 99 out of the 199 seats in which the assembly elections took place in Rajasthan. This is a slight deviation from the exit polls which predicted a clean sweep by the grand old party.

With BJP securing 73 seats and the polling percentage in the state dropping to 74.21% from the previous 75.67% – despite Modi’s high-decibel campaign revolving around Ram mandir, Congress’s 60 years of rule and positive self-appraisal of BJP’s schemes – the relevance of ‘Modi factor’ has become debatable. Even Adityanath’s communal rhetoric couldn’t attain the saffron party a victory in Pokhran, although the margin was quite narrow.

The question of who will take the top post is now echoing in the state. Both the front-runners, Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot have repeatedly told the media that Rahul Gandhi would have the final say. Meanwhile, the MLAs have been asked to reach the capital Jaipur by noon on Wednesday.

“As far as who will become the chief minister is concerned, go to Rahul Gandhi because it is a decision that will be taken collectively,” said Gehlot.

The party is open to the winning candidates from Bahujan Samaj Party, independent and other parties. “We are in touch with like-minded, anti-BJP parties,” Pilot told reporters.

Independent winners

Nine out of the 13 winning independent candidates are rebel Congress leaders who were denied tickets – Ramila Khadiya from Kushalgarh, Raj Kumar Gaur from Ganganagar, Laxman Meena from Bassi, Babulal Nagar from Dudu, Ramkesh from Gangapur, Sanyam Lodha from Sirohi, Alok Beniwal from Shahpura, Mahadeo Singh from Khandela and Khushveer Singh from Marwar Junction.

This reflects the party’s poor decision on choosing candidatures.

Agrarian distress made irrelevant

Interestingly, Vasundhara Raje’s half-hearted attempt of waiving only short-term loans taken by small and marginal farmers from cooperative banks couldn’t garner votes. Out of the 11 seats in Ganganagar and Hanumangarh in northern Rajasthan, where the farmers’ protests were at its peak, BJP won five seats, Congress four, Communist Party of India (Marxist) one and an independent candidate took one.

CPI(M) couldn’t win any seat in Sikar, the epicentre of farmers’ protest in the Shekhawati region. Both its candidates, Amra Ram and Pema Ram lost the elections. However, even BJP has been reduced to zero there.

Also read: Congress Looks All Set to Form Government in Rajasthan

Alwar

Out of the ten seats contested in Alwar, BJP’s tally was reduced to two seats – Alwar (Urban) and Mundawar. In the rest of the constituencies, Congress won four, BSP two and two went to independents. In the adjoining Bharatpur, BJP couldn’t win a single seat.

The result is seen as an answer to the uncomfortable silence BJP maintained over cow vigilante attacks that took place in the constituency.

Congress party workers celebrate. Credit: PTI

BJP yet to manage its association with the Muslim community

Sachin Pilot, Congress’s front-runner for the chief ministerial post, won by a huge margin of over 50,000 votes in Tonk, a Muslim-dominated constituency where BJP had fielded Yunus Khan, its sole Muslim candidate. The main reason why Khan couldn’t bring in the Muslim vote was his over-indulgence in Hindutva politics.

In four seats of Tonk, BJP managed a win only in Malpura. In Nagaur too, BJP has been reduced to two seats – Makrana and Nagaur.

Was anti-Raje sentiment a hype?

Vasundhara Raje managed an effortless win from her home turf Jhalrapatan despite Congress fielding Manvendra Singh, son of former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh against her.

Even so, the BJP won all the four seats from Jhalawar, putting the much-hyped ‘anti-Raje but not anti-Modi’ mood in the state to rest.

From Ajmer – the bastion of BJP since the 1990s where the Congress had made inroads in the Lok Sabha by-polls in January – BJP has shown resurgence, winning five seats out of the eight seats and reducing Congress to two seats and independent candidates to one.

The reserved seats

Surprisingly, the Meena belt of Rajasthan, which is known to vote for the BJP, paved the way for the newly-emerged Bhartiya Tribal Party in Dungarpur, which took of the four seats, reducing the BJP to one. Even in Karauli, the Meena seats – Sapotra and Todabhim – went to Congress. Lalsot seat in Dausa also went to Congress.

Bahujan Samaj Party managed win six seats – Karauli, Udaipurwati, Nadbai, Nagar, Kishangarh bas and Tijara.

Shocking defeats

Rameshwar Lal Dudi, leader of the opposition in the Rajasthan legislative assembly, lost the Nokha seat in Bikaner to BJP’s Biharilal Bishnoi with a margin of 8,663 votes. He had managed a comfortable win of 66,554 votes in the last election over the then BJP candidate. In the run-up to the polls, infighting between Pilot and Dudi has surfaced quite a few times.

Former National Commission for Women chief Girija Vyas, who contested from the Udaipur seat against Gulab Chand Kataria, home minister of Rajasthan, also lost.

Habibur Rahman, former BJP MLA from Nagaur who had recently joined Congress and was given the party’s ticket from Nagaur seat, lost by 13,008 votes.

Third front

A third front emerged in Rajasthan politics with two parties – Rising Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLTP) and BJP rebel Ghanshyam Tiwari’s Bharat Vahini Party (BVP). While Beniwal emerged victorious on the Khinvsar seat, Tiwari lost his seat to Ashok Lahoty, the Jaipur mayor. Tiwari has been winning this seat since 2003 from BJP’s ticket.

While RLTP won three seats, BVP took none.

Congress Looks All Set to Form Government in Rajasthan

Although the Congress secured only 0.5% more votes than the BJP, it proved enough to take the party across the half-way mark required to form a government independently.

New Delhi: Growing farmer distress, unemployment and communal and caste violence all contributed to the downfall of the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in Rajasthan. The Congress has emerged as the single-largest party in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly and was headed to winning close to 100 seats out of the 199 for which counting took place on Tuesday. Election in Ramgarh was postponed due to the death of the BSP candidate.

Though Raje won her own seat of Jhalrapatan, defeating former BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh by a margin of 34980 votes, she could not reverse the “revolving door anti-incumbency” trend which began in 1993 after which the state has never seen an incumbent government to power.

Congress welcomes all like-minded parties

Led ably by the two-time former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and the young Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot, the Congress managed to cross the half-way mark on its own. By late afternoon it became clear that the grand old party would form the next government in the state. Pilot then told the media that while he was sure about a complete majority, he would still “welcome all like-minded and anti-BJP parties to support us”.

Also read: Congress to Form Govt in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh; MP Race Still Tight

This statement was a far cry from the confidence Congress exuded when it decided to go alone in the polls without allying with others like Bahujan Samaj Party. As the numbers are fluctuating, it appears that the MLAs of BSP, which looks set to win six seats, could either end up in effecting a government formation as they did in 2008 or lend stability to a government.

Gehlot, Pilot remain in race for CM post

Both Gehlot and Pilot won their elections comfortably, and in doing so have set up an interesting contest now for the CM’s job. While Gehlot won the Sardarpura seat for the fifth time, defeating Shambhu Singh of the BJP by over 40,000 votes, Pilot won by a huge margin from Tonk. He defeated transport minister Yoonus Khan, BJP’s lone Muslim candidate, by 54,179 votes.

Another prominent Congress leader who won is C.P. Joshi, who defeated BJP’s Mahesh Pratap Singh in Nathdwara. Joshi had courted controversy earlier and was attacked by the BJP when, while taking a dig at the Modi-Shah duo, he declared that only Brahmins can teach Hinduism.

Comfortable majority but vote share difference marginal

The result in Rajasthan on the whole was in line with most of the opinion polls which predicted a Congress win. But in the final analysis, the Congress fell short on the expectations. Everyone expected the Congress to win by a huge margin and with a significantly higher vote share. But that did not happen. The Congress vote percentage was just about 0.5 percentage points higher than that of the BJP.

That, however, proved enough to take the party across the half way mark. It ended up winning …. seats. Another major gain for the Congress is that it improved dramatically over its performance in 2013 when BJP secured 45.50% votes while Congress managed just 33.31%.

Many BJP ministers trounced

The Congress leaders in this election also trounced a number of senior BJP leaders as they battled hard to wrest power.

BJP’s Social Justice minister Arun Chaturvedi lost to Pratap Singh Khachariya in Civil Lines; water resources minister Rampratap lost to Vinod Kumar in Hanumangarh; and Industry minister Rajpal Singh lost to Lalchand Kataria in Jhotwara.

Then Pramod Bhaya of the Congress defeated agriculture minister Prabhu Lal Saini by a huge margin in Anta.

Also read: Congress Set to Dethrone Vasundhara Raje in Rajasthan

Anjana Udailal of Congress also emerged victorious over urban development and housing minister Srichand Kriplani in Nimbahera.

Cooperative minister Ajay Singh lost by a big margin to Vijaypal Mirdha of the Congress in Degana. Similarly mines minister Surendra Pal Singh lost to Gurmeet Singh Kooner in Karanpur.

Another BJP minister in-charge of Gaupalan, Otaram Devasi, lost to Independent candidate Sanyam Lodha in Sirohi. Lodha had contested the 2013 election on a Congress ticket but lost to Devasi. This time he thus extracted his revenge.

Some BJP ministers just sneaked through

Some BJP ministers also survived after initial scares. Higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari, who was trailing early when the counting began, ultimately defeated Narayan Singh Bhati of the Congress by a big margin in Rajsamand.

Likewise, after trailing initially, home minister Gulab Chand Kataria defeated former Congress Union minister Girija Vyas in Udaipur.

Health minister Kalicharan Saraf was involved in a close contest with Dr. Archana Sharma of the Congress in Malviya Nagar.

Some senior Congress leaders lost despite the party getting close to power. Leader of opposition Rameshwar Duddi lost to Bihari Lal of the BJP in Nokha.

Rajasthan assembly speaker Kailash Meghwal registered his sixth win in state assembly polls. He defeated Mahaveer Prasad of the Congress by 74,542 votes in Shahpura.

Prominent community leaders get through

In Khinwsar, prominent Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, who was expelled from the BJP in 2013 after he accused the party leaders of corruption, won the election. He defeated Savai Singh Chaudhary of the Congress. Ahead of the assembly polls, Beniwal declared that his party would contest all 200 seats in the state. His community and party wields significant influence in Shekhawat and Marwar regions of the state.

Also watch: Live: Assembly Elections Results 2018

Another party which contested several seats was the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP). Though it secured less than 1% of total votes polled, it made its presence felt in two seats and opened its account, winning Chorasi. There, its candidate Rajkumar Roat defeated BJP’s Sushil Katara by over 12,000 votes. The party was floated by tribal leader Chhotubhai Vasava in 2017 and won two seats in the Gujarat assembly polls the same year.

The Congress also played its cards well in the polls, and this showed in Sapotra. There, its candidate Ramesh Chand Meena defeated BJP candidate Golma Devi, wife of Meena community leader Kirodi Lal Meena.

CPI(M) puts up a good show with support of farmers

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) also rode the anger among the farmers with the BJP government well and bagged two seats. In Bhadra, its candidate Balwan Poonia defeated Sanjeev Kumar of the BJP by a comfortable margin. In February this year, Poonia led a protest of farmers in front of the local State Bank of India branch and secured a refund of extra interest charged by the bank on their Kisan Credit Card accounts. In Shree Dungargarh, CPI(M) candidate Girdharilal also won by a comfortable margin.