Cong bites the dust in Rajasthan as BJP sweeps all 25 seats

Jaipur: For the first time since the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress failed to open its account in Rajasthan with even its senior leaders biting the dust and rival BJP sweeping all the 25 seats. Though in the 1989 Lok Sabha polls BJP had won 13, Janata Dal 11 and CPI(M) one, and the Congress lost all 25 seats in Rajasthan, and this time too the Congress lost all the seats, but at BJP’s gain. [caption id=“attachment_1528715” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Vasundhara Raje. Reuters[/caption] Before 1989, the Congress had secured one out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in 1977, when former Prime Minister Choudhary Charan Singh’s Bhartiya Lok Dal had won 24 seats in the state. Congress’s Nathu Ram Mirdha had won from Rajasthan’s Nagaur seat and Gargishankar Mishra from Madhya Pradesh. After coming to power in the state with 163 MLAs in the last year’s assembly polls riding on Modi wave, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had set her eyes on ‘Mission-25’ and today she won in all constituencies. Congress stalwarts and Union ministers Sachin Pilot, Jitendra Singh, Chandresh Kumari, Namonarayan Meena, Girija Vyas and six sitting Congress MPs Mahesh Joshi, CP Joshi, Ijyaraj Singh, Dr Jyoti Mirdha, Raghuveer Meena, and Harish Choudhary bit the dust in their home constituencies. BJP rebel and Independent candidate Jaswant Singh lost to behind BJP candidate Col Sonaram by a margin of over 87,000 votes in Barmer seat. BJP candidates Santosh Ahalwat in Jhunjhunu, Chandra Prakash Joshi in Chittorgarh, Dushyant Singh in Jhalawar- Baran, Nihal Chand in Ganganagar, Arjun Lal Meena in Udaipur, Gopal Singh Shekhawat in Rajsamand, Subhash Baheria in Bhilwara, Devji Patel in Jalore, and Arjun Meghwal in Bikaner won their seats with huge margins. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, who came up with the ‘Mission 25’, said, “The congratulations are not due to me but they are due to the public who voted for us. I am getting the news that the situation across the country is similar as it is in Rajasthan.” Union minister and Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot was defeated in Ajmer Lok Sabha seat by BJP candidate and sitting MLA Sanwarlal Jat. Pilot, sitting MP from Ajmer, was defeated by a margin of 1,71,983 votes. Jat secured 6,37,874 votes, while Pilot 4,65,891. Another Union minister and Congress candidate Girija Vyas lost to BJP’s Chandra Prakash Joshi by a margin of 3,16,857 votes in Chittorgarh Lok Sabha seat. Congress candidate and Union minister Chandresh Kumari Katoch, a member of Himachal royal family, could not retain her Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat and was defeated by BJP’s new face Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by a margin of 4,10,051 votes. Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s aide and Union minister Jitendra Singh failed to retain the Alwar Lok Sabha seat as he was defeated by BJP’s Chandnath by a margin of 2,83,895 votes. Before the second phase polling in the state on April 24, Gandhi came to Alwar to hold a roadshow in support of Jitendra. On Meena vs Meena and Gurjar vs Gurjar contest, Minister of State for Finance Namonarain Meena not only lost the Dausa seat to his brother Harish Chandra Meena (BJP), but came third in the race. Harish Meena won the Dausa Lok Sabha seat by defeating his nearest rival Kirori Lal Meena of the National People’s Party by a margin of 45,404 votes. Harish, former Director General of Police of Rajasthan, secured 3,15,059 votes, whereas Kirori and Namonarain got 2,69,655 and 1,81,272 votes, respectively. Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh, who created a media hype by entering the poll fray from Barmer as an Independent, was defeated by the party’s official candidate, Col (retired) Sona Ram, by a margin of 87,461 votes. Sitting MP of Congress, Harish Chaudhary, came third with 2,20,881 votes. BJP candidate and sitting MP Dushyant Singh, son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, made hat-trick by winning the Jhalawar-Baran seat. He defeated Congress’s Pramod Jain Bhaya by a landslide margin of 2,81,546 votes. Former cricketer and Congress candidate Mohammed Azharuddin was defeated in Tonk-Sawaimadhopur Lok Sabha seat by BJP’s Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria.