In the by-polls held in Rajasthan on the 29th of January, Congress has won the Mandalgarh Assembly seat and the Alwar Lok Sabha seat and has significant lead in Ajmer. The BJP had won comfortably in these Lok Sabha seats with margins of 2,83,985 and 1,71,983 votes respectively. Today’s defeat of the BJP reflect a shift of over 4 lakh votes in the two combined Lok Sabha seats.
The results will come as a huge jolt to the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections later this year. There have been reports of severe discontentment of the voters with the Vasundhara Raje government in recent times. These results will serve as a much needed wake up call to the Bharatiya Janata Party. The President of the Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, took to Twitter to congratulate the state unit of the party in Rajasthan.
Well done Rajasthan Congress! Proud of each and every one of you. This is a rejection of the BJP by the people of Rajasthan.#RajasthanByPolls
— Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 1, 2018
We had reported earlier that amidst the recent Padmavat controversy, several Rajput organizations swore their unconditional support to the Congress ahead of the by-polls and vowed to avenge the ‘insult’ that the BJP government had meted out to the Rajput community. The results indicate that they have indeed been successful in their attempt to convey their message of resentment and anger towards the BJP. The Congress have cleverly taken advantage of the whole controversy surrounding the movie and successfully turned it to their advantage.
Ashok Gehlot of the Congress remarked they were only taking forward the positive result they achieved in Gujarat.
Post our campaigning in Gujarat we have seen a positive effect across the country and we are witnessing the same in Rajasthan: @ashokgehlot51, General Secretary AICC on #RajasthanBypolls
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— News18 (@CNNnews18) February 1, 2018
Complaints about EVM tampering on result day, which have become a tradition in recent times, also seem to have evaporated into thin air as order seems to have been restored with a Congress victory. In other news, Trinamool in West Bengal has won the Noapara Assembly seat and Uluberia Lok Sabha seat that went into the by-polls. The Rajasthan results are warning signs for the BJP of what lies ahead unless there’s some severe course correction from its state unit.
