The voters of Rajasthan on Saturday sealed the fate of incumbent Congress Government and the Opposition BJP in the high stake polls the results of which will be known on December 3.
The election holds great significance for the BJP as it engages in a direct contest with the ruling Congress.
The grand old party seeks to defy the trend of the ruling party being voted out every five years. Simultaneously, the BJP is strategically aiming for a comeback in the State ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year.
It is more important for the Congress, which has been ridden by internal factionalism right from the day one of the formation of the government under the leadership of Ashok Gehlot who had installed former Union Minister Sachin Pilot as his Deputy.
Pilot rebelled soon against Gehlot, which continues till date, barring the photo opportunities for both the towering leaders as well as the grand old party, as the issue was the talk of the BJP’s election campaign led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A similar Pilot-Gehlot script materialised in Madhya Pradesh, where Jyotiraditya Scindia rebelled against Kamal Nath to bring down the Congress majority Government.
Madhya Pradesh also voted this month and awaits the results, along with Chhattisgarh and Meghalaya, where polls have been held, and in Telangana, which goes to polls at the end of this month.
The Assaduddin Owaisi-led AIMIM and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) are also contesting the Assembly polls in the State this year.
In the 2018 Assembly polls, the Congress wrested power from the BJP and formed the Government with Ashok Gehlot as Chief Minister for a third time.
The Congress had won 100 seats and the BJP 73 then in the 200-member Vidhan Sabha. The BJP, in 2013, formed the Government with Vasundhara Raje Scindia becoming the Chief Minister for a second time. In 2013, the BJP had won 163 seats and the Congress 21.
While the State unit of Rajasthan is hopeful of Vashundhara to make a comeback as the CM as the voters have voted for her, the BJP looks to change the guard this time if it wins and ‘downsize’ Vashundhara to elevate her to the party’s Marg Darshak Mandal which was formed in 2014 by the Modi regime which has leaders like former Deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani, former Union Ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and others.
More than 68 per cent voter turnout was recorded by 5 pm with polling passing off peacefully barring a few stray incidents of violence.
In the last Assembly elections in 2018, the State recorded a voter turnout of 74.06 per cent.
Polling in the Karanpur assembly constituency in Sriganganagar was postponed due to the death of the Congress candidate. Two people - Shanti Lal, who was a polling agent of the BJP candidate from the Sumerpur constituency Joraram Kumawat, and 62-year-old voter Satyendra Arora - died of cardiac arrest at polling booths in Pali and Udaipur districts. There are more than 5.25 crore registered voters in 199 seats while 1,862 candidates are in the fray.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Union ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Kailash Chaudhary, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot were among the first ones to cast their votes. Gehlot and Shekhawat voted in Jodhpur, Chaudhary in Balotra, Raje in Jhalawar and Pilot in Jaipur.
Rajasthan BJP president C P Joshi exercised his franchise in Chittorgarh and party MPs Diya Kumari and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore voted in Jaipur. Kumari and Rathore are among the seven BJP parliamentarians who are contesting the assembly elections.
“There is no anti-incumbency against the Congress and the party will form the government in the state again, Chief Minister Gehlot said in Jodhpur. “There seems to be an undercurrent. Looks like the (Congress) government will be repeated,” he said.
Talking to reporters in Jhalawar, Raje retorted, “I agree with him. There is indeed an undercurrent but in the favour of BJP. Lotus (BJP’s poll symbol) will bloom on December 3.”
