Three Union Ministers, LS Speaker among 14 BJP candidates who won in Rajasthan
Jaipur: The BJP, which won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan in 2019, suffered a major setback as it could win only 14 seats in the state this time, losing 11 to the Congress-led INDIA bloc.
Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Bhupendra Yadav and Arjun Ram Meghwal won from their respective seats while Kailash Chaudhary lost from Barmer.
Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot lost from Jalore.
In Churu, where sitting BJP MP Rahul Kaswan switched to the Congress after being denied the ticket, defeated Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia fielded by the BJP. Kaswan won the Churu seat by around 72,737 votes.
Speaking to the media, Kaswan said, “I want to thank the people of Churu for making me win. Congress worked unitedly to win this seat.”
He also attacked BJP leader Rajendra Rathore, a seven-time MLA from Churu, and said, “People gave a befitting reply to those who themselves confuse voters as they don’t have any developmental issue. Earlier, people gave a befitting reply in Tara Nagar too.”
Rathore was fielded from Tara Nagar in the Assembly elections, where he faced defeat. Rathore blamed Kaswan for the defeat and later, Kaswan was denied the party ticket.
Sources said that because of the development, the Jats went against the BJP. The Churu effect extended to Haryana too where Jats boycotted the BJP.
In Barmer also, Jats voted for the Congress’ Ummeda Ram Beniwal, who defeated independent candidate Ravindra Bhati. Union Minister Kailash Chaudhary ranked third in Barmer.
The Congress made a clean sweep in Rajasthan’s Shekhawati belt, which has a significant presence of Jat voters, they said.
In Kota, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla won although his margin was reduced. He was fielded against Prahlad Gunjal, an ex-BJP leader who joined Congress after being denied the ticket.
In Dausa, Congress MLA Murari Lal Meena defeated BJP’s Jagmohan Meena. Murari Lal said that it is after 15 years that Congress has won this seat.
Congress sources said that the Dausa seat was a game changer as it equally influenced nearby seats including Bharatpur, Karauli Dholpur and Tonk Sawai Madhopur, which has a significant number of Meena and Gurjar votes. This time, both Meenas and Gurjars voted for the Congress, they said.
Further, the BJP lost three seats to INDIA bloc candidates. These were Nagaur, Sikar and Banswara. In Nagaur, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party’s Hanuman Beniwal defeated BJP’s Jyoti Mirdha. Similarly, CPI-M’s Amraram won in Sikar and in Banswara, Congress-supported BAP candidate Rajkumar Roat defeated BJP’s Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, a rebel Congress MLA.
Rajsamand BJP candidate Mahima Kumari Mewar won with the highest margin of 3,92,223 votes. She scored 7,81,203 votes. Mahima is the wife of Udaipur MLA Vishwaraj Singh Mewar. She defeated Congress’ Damodar Gurjar.
Dhushyant Singh, son of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, secured the second-highest victory margin of 3,70,989 votes. He got 8,65,376 votes.
Bhilwara BJP candidate Damodar Agarwal scored 807640 votes and won with a margin of 354606 votes.
Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal won with a margin of 55,711 votes from the Bikaner seat; BJP’s Manju Sharma won the Jaipur seat with a margin of 3,31,767 votes; Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav won with a margin of 48,282 votes from Alwar; Bhagirath Chaudhary won with a margin of 3,29,991 votes from Ajmer; P.P. Chaudhary won from Pali with a margin of 2,45,351 votes; Lumbaram won with 2,01,542 votes from Jalore defeating Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot; and Manna Lal Rawat won from Udaipur with a margin of 2,61,608.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Diya Kumari congratulated all the newly elected MPs.
She said, “Many congratulations and best wishes to all the newly elected MPs of the Bharatiya Janata Party who won the Lok Sabha elections. On this occasion, I express my heartfelt gratitude to all the hard-working workers of the party and the God-like people.”