INDIA bloc wins 11 seats in Rajasthan with Cong bagging 8; BJP fails to repeat its 2019 performance

Jaipur, Jun 4 (PTI) The opposition INDIA bloc secured 11 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan with the Congress clinching eight, marking a remarkable turnaround for the party which had failed to secure a single seat in the state in the last two parliamentary polls.

The ruling BJP won 14 seats in the state, 10 less than its 2019 tally.

Besides the Congress' eight, INDIA bloc partners CPI(M), Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP), CPIM and the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) won one Lok Sabha seat each. At the same time, BAP candidate Jaikrishn Patel won the assembly bypoll on the Bagidora seat in Banswara district.

Of the Lok Sabha poll winners in the state, five are sitting MLAs with three of the Congress, and one each of the BAP and RLP.

Reacting to the poll results, BJP state chief C P Joshi alleged that the opposition parties tried to mislead people by raising irrelevant issues during the elections and it was the NDA which got the support, love and blessings of all.

The results have infused energy into the Congress which lost assembly elections in Rajasthan in December last year.

Its state unit president Govind Singh Dotasra said the INDIA bloc will form government at the Centre and there is no question of Narendra Modi becoming prime minister for a third term.

About the election trend in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and other states, he said, "It is the blessings of the people. The people have made up their minds. BJP is a party of liars." Former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the BJP did not get 370 seats and the NDA failed to bag 400 seats. Given the situation, Modi should withdraw his name from the prime ministerial post, he said on X.

In a jolt to the BJP, Union Minister Kailash Choudhary lost to Congress' Ummedaram Beniwal by 4,17,943 votes and stood third. Among other Union ministers, Arjun Meghwal won from Bikaner for the fourth consecutive term by 55,711 votes, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat for the third time from Jodhpur by 1,15,677 and Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar for the first time by a margin of 48,282 votes.

Yadav is Rajya Sabha MP and was fielded in Lok Sabha election from Rajasthan's Alwar seat which fell vacant after Baba Balaknath won assembly elections in December last year. The BJP also lost the Bharatpur seat to Congress. Significantly, Bharatpur is the hometown of Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma.

The BJP's Manju Sharma defeated Congress nominee and former minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas in Jaipur by a margin of 3,31,767 votes, PP Choudhary won from Pali, C P Joshi from Chittorgarh, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla from Kota by 41,974 votes, Dushyant Singh from Jhalawar-Baran by 3,70,989 votes, Bhagirath Choudhary from Ajmer by 3,29,991 votes, Lumbaram from Jalore, Mahima Kumari Mewar from Rajsamand, Damodar Agarwal from Bhilwara and Manna Lal Rawat from Udaipur.

In the Jalore-Sirohi constituency, Lumbaram, a grassroots-level BJP worker, defeated former chief minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot by a margin of 2,01,543 votes. In 2019, Vaibhav Gehlot contested his first Lok Sabha election from Jodhpur but lost to the BJP's Gajendra Singh Shekhawat.

In Rajsamand, the BJP's Mahima Kumari Mewar won by a margin of 3,92,223 votes. She is a member of the erstwhile royal family of Mewar and her husband Vishvaraj Singh Mewar is the BJP MLA from the Nathdwara seat of Rajsamand district. In Udaipur, BJP candidate Manna Lal Rawat defeated the Congress' Tarachand Meena by 2,61,608 votes.

Congress candidate Bhajan Lal Jatav won the Karauli-Dholpur seat by a margin of 98,945 votes. He defeated his nearest rival Indu Devi of the BJP. In Bharatpur, Congress' Sanjna Jatav defeated BJP's Ramswaroop Koli by a margin of 51,983 votes.

The other Congress candidates who won are Kuldeep Indora (Ganganagar), Rahul Kaswan (Churu), Brijendra Ola (Jhunjhunu), Sanjana Jatav (Bharatpur), Bhajan Lal Jatav (Karauli-Dholpur), Murari Lal Meena (Dausa), Ummeda Ram Beniwal (Barmer) and Harish Chandra Meena (Tonk- Sawaimadhopur).

Murari Lal Meena, Harish Chandra Meena and Brijendra Ola are sitting Congress MLAs. Rahul Kaswan, who resigned as BJP MP ahead of the LS elections and contested as Congress candidate on Churu seat won by 72,737 votes, defeating paralympic gold medalist Devendra Jhajharia.

Kaswan had differences with senior BJP leader and former leader of the opposition Rajendra Rathore.

INDIA bloc partner CPI(M) won the Sikar Lok Sabha seat where its candidate Amraram defeated the BJP's Sumedhanand Saraswati by 72,896 votes. RLP candidate and MLA Hanuman Beniwal won the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat.

Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) candidate Rajkumar Roat, supported by the Congress, defeated BJP candidate Mahendrajeet Malviya by a margin of 2,47,054 votes. He is also an MLA from BAP. PTI AG SDA NSD NSD