In a jolt to the Vasundhara Raje government, the opposition Congress wrested three Assembly seats of Weir, Nasirabad and Surajgarh from the ruling BJP which could retain only the Kota seat.
Out of four Assembly seats which went to polls on September 13, BJP managed to win only one, bringing down its strength in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly to 160 from 163.
In Nasirabad Assembly constituency, Congress candidate Ramnarayan Gujjar defeated BJP’s Sarita Gena by a margin of 386 votes. Ramnarayan got 66,648 votes while BJP’s Sarita got 66,262 votes.
Congress regained its old Scheduled caste seat of Weir with its candidate Bhajanlal defeating BJP veteran Gangaram Koli by 25108 votes.
In Surajgarh Assembly constituency, BJP’s former minister Digamber Singh, who shifted from Bharatpur and is said to be Raje loyalist, lost to the Congress candidate.
Congress’ Shravan Kumar secured 70527 votes while Singh secured 67257 votes. With the victory in three seats, Congress tally in the Assembly is now 24.
BJP retained Kota city with party candidate Sandeep Sharma winning the Kota-South Assembly constituency by defeating Congress candidate Shivkant Nandwana by a margin of 25,707 votes. Sharma got 84,233 votes while Shivkant got 58,526 votes.
Twenty-three candidates were in the fray including four each of BJP, and Congress, and one CPI-ML.
The bypolls were necessitated after sitting MLAs Sanwar Lal Jat (Nasirabad), Om Birla (Kota—South), Santosh Ahlawat (Surajgarh) and Bahadur Singh Koli (Weir) resigned from the Assembly following their election to Lok Sabha.
Immediately after the Assembly polls in November last year in Rajasthan, BJP had won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in May this year.
Early trends
Initial trends show that Congress candidates Shrawan Kumar (Surajgarh), Bhajanlal (Weir) and Ramnarayan (Nasirabad) are leading with vote margins of 1325, 8658 and 167 respectively whereas only one candidate of BJP, Sandeep Sharma, is leading on Kota South Seat with a margin of 13,212 votes.
Former Health Minister and BJP candidate Digambar Singh is trailing behind Shrawan Kumar of Congress in Surajgarh after 10 rounds of voting.
Early trends on Tuesday show BJP leading in three of the four assembly seats where bypolls were held in the desert state of Rajasthan. BJP was leading in Weir, Nasirabad and Kota South constituency while the Congress candidate was leading in Surajgarh assembly constituency.
Bhajan Lal of Congress is leading in Weir constituency, leaving behind BJP candidate Gangaram with a margin of 470 votes. BJP candidate Sandeep Sharma is ahead of Congress candidate Shivkant Nandwana with a margin of 3118 votes in Kota South Assembly constituency of Rajasthan.
Counting begins
The counting of votes began in the four district headquarters of Jhunjhunu, Ajmer, Kota and Bharatpur. 23 candidates including four each of BJP and Congress were in the fray for the by-elections in Surajgarh, Nasirabad, Weir and Kota—South constituencies. The by-polls were necessitated after the sitting MLAs Sanwar Lal Jat (Nasirabad), Om Birla (Kota—South), Santosh Ahlawat (Surajgarh) and Bahadur Singh Koli (Weir) resigned from the Assembly following their election to Lok Sabha.
