Rajasthan: ‘Unexpected for everyone,’ says Gehlot as BJP set to win 115 seats

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot submitted his resignation to Governor Kalraj Mishra on Sunday (December 3) evening after the Congress was defeated in the Assembly polls.

Gehlot reached the Raj Bhavan in Jaipur and handed over the resignation letter to the governor.

At the time of this report being filed, the BJP had crossed the halfway mark in Rajasthan, winning 112 seats out of the 199 where Assembly elections took place and leading in another three.

The Congress, which was hoping to buck the trend of the incumbent being voted out in the state every five years, had bagged 64 seats and was ahead in five.

Polling in 199 of the state’s 200 seats was held on November 25. The election in Sriganganagar’s Karanpur seat was postponed due to the death of the Congress candidate.

Gehlot blames Modi-Shah

Gehlot said the poll results were “unexpected for everyone” but rejected suggestions that bringing forward “new faces” would have helped the party retain power.

He lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, alleging they incited people in the name of religion during the election campaign. The Congress leader said he had expected the people of the state to take “revenge” on the BJP leaders, but it did not happen.

In a post on X, Gehlot 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.”

Later, talking to reporters, Gehlot said they would go into the reasons behind the adverse election results in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. Replying to a question on whether a change of face in the elections might have brought a positive result, Gehlot said that it would be wrong to say that bringing new faces might have made the party win the elections.

“There was talk of bringing new faces, and new faces should come, but this demand was not there in MP and Chhattisgarh and still we lost the election. It would be wrong to say that we would have won the election if new faces were brought.”

Gehlot and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot, who was batting for handing over the reins to the next-generation leaders, were engaged in a power tussle since the Congress formed the government in the state in 2018.

Asked if the defeat might affect the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Gehlot replied, “All these things affect. In the elections, Kharge ji, Rahul Gandhi ji, and Priyanka Gandhi...everyone campaigned massively. Our schemes were exemplary.

“We were expecting to win on the basis of our schemes, laws and promises. But the government could not be formed.” Gehlot said he would continue to work for the people whether he remains in any position or not. He said he would continue to work for the people of the state till his last breath.

He said party president Mallikarjun Kharge has asked everyone to now prepare for the Parliament election.

“I wish the new government all the best. My advice to them is that despite working hard, we were not successful. It does not mean they should not work after forming the government,” he said.

He said all the schemes introduced by the Congress government in the past five years, including the old pension scheme and the Chiranjeevi health insurance scheme, should be taken forward by the next government.

Congress ministers lose

While Gehlot himself won the Sardarpura seat with 96,859 votes and by a margin of 26,396 votes, several ministers, including Disaster Management Minister Govind Ram Meghwal, lost the polls.

Meghwal, who was also the Congress’s campaign committee chief, was defeated by BJP’s Vishwanath Meghwal in the Khajuwala seat.

The other Congress ministers who lost the elections included Bhanwar Singh Bhati (Kolayat), Shakuntala Rawat (Bansur), Vishvendra Singh (Deeg Kumher), Ramesh Chand Meena (Sapotara), Shale Mohammad (Pokaran), and Udailal Anjana (Nimbahera).

BD Kalla (Bikaner West), Zahida Khan (Kaman), Bhajan Lal Jatav (Weir), Mamta Bhupesh (Sikrai), Parsadi Lal Meena (Lalsot), Ramlal Jat (Mandal), and Pramod Jain Bhaya (Anta) also lost, while Sukhram Vishnoi (Sanchore) was trailing.

Five of the six advisors to CM Gehlot — Sanyam Lodha (Sirohi), Rajkumar Sharma (Nawalgarh), Babu Lal Nagar (Dudu), Danish Abrar, and former chief secretary Niranjan Arya — lost as well.

Barring Gehlot, Ashok Chandna (Hindoli), Shanti Dhariwal (Kota North), Brajendra Ola (Jhunjhunu), Subhash Garg (RLD/ Bharatpur), Murari Lal Meena (Dausa), Arjun Singh Bamaniya (Banswara) and Mahendra Jeet Singh Malviya (Bagidora) won their seats.

Sachin Pilot won from Tonk.

Turncoats lose seats

Congress turncoats lost their seats in Bari and Nagaur. Girraj Singh Malinga, sitting MLA from Bari who switched over to BJP from the Congress, lost the seat to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Jaswant Singh Gurjar by 27,424 votes.

Gurjar secured 1,06,060 votes and was declared winner from the Bari seat.

Hours before the Congress announced the ticket for its Bari seat on November 5, Malinga joined the BJP and was given the ticket.

Last year, Malinga was accused of thrashing two engineers of the Electricity Department, one of whom is a Dalit. The engineer who belongs to the Dalit community is bedridden for one year.

The BJP was criticised by Congress leaders, including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, and Dalit organisations for giving Malinga a ticket in the polls.

At the same time, former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha, who also joined the BJP and contested from Nagaur, lost to her Congress rival Harendra Mirdha by a margin of 14,620 votes, the Election Commission website showed.

BJP’s big wins

Among BJP leaders, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, with 138,831 votes, won the Jhalrapatan seat by 53,193 votes against her Congress rival Ramlal Chouhan.

Party colleague Diya Kumari, with 158,516 votes, won the Vidhyadhar Nagar constituency by 71,368 votes against the Congress’s Sitaram Agarwal.

In Tijara, another high-profile BJP candidate, Mahant Balak Nath, with 110,209 votes, won by 6,173 votes against Imran Khan of the Congress.

In the Sawai Madhopur seat, BJP’s Kirodi Lal Meena won by a margin of 22,510 votes against his Congress rival Danish Abrar.

Jhotwara saw a dramatic U-turn, with the Congress’s Abhishek Choudhary losing his early lead against BJP candidate Rajyavardhan Rathore to trail him by 3 pm. Rathore won the seat with 147,913 votes and a margin of 50,167 votes.

The Amber seat also saw a roller-coaster ride, with Congress candidate Prashant Sharma first leading against BJP rival Satish Poonia in the morning, then trailing him around midday and then again taking the lead in the afternoon.

Poonia, Deputy Leader of Opposition, lost the Amber seat by a margin of 9,092 votes. Sharma secured 1,08,914 votes, while Poonia got 99,822 votes, as per the EC website.

Poonia is also a former state president of the BJP.

(With agency inputs)