In a setback to the newly formed Bharatiya Janata Party government, Minister of State Surendra Pal Singh on January 8 lost the Rajasthan Assembly election in Sriganganagar district’s Karanpur by a margin of 11,283 votes to his Congress rival Rupinder Singh Kooner. The 2023 Assembly election in Karanpur was postponed following the death of Congress candidate and Mr. Kooner’s father Gurmeet Singh.
Mr. Singh’s defeat came as a major embarrassment to the ruling BJP, as he was inducted into the Bhajan Lal Sharma Ministry on December 30, ahead of the polling on January 5, amid allegations of violation of election laws and the model code conduct. Though the Opposition Congress had lodged a complaint in this regard with the Election Commission, no decision was taken on the plea to disqualify Mr. Singh.
Mr. Singh, who has been a Minister in the past as well, is considered a senior Sikh leader in the northern Rajasthan region adjoining Punjab’s Fazilka and Sri Muktsar Sahib districts. While his candidature and appointment as a Minister of State (independent charge) were being questioned, he was allocated the Agricultural Marketing, Indira Gandhi Canal and Minority Affairs Departments on January 5, coinciding with the polling.
In a late night development after the declaration of election result, Mr. Singh tendered his resignation from the post of Minister of State. A Raj Bhavan communique said the Governor, Kalraj Mishra, had accepted Mr. Singh’s resignation with immediate effect. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma forwarded Mr. Singh’s resignation to the Governor.
Mr. Kooner obtained 94,950 votes as against Mr. Singh’s 83,667, while Aam Aadmi Party’s Prithipal Singh trailed at third position with 11,940 votes. Mr. Singh, who had to get elected as an MLA within six months of appointment as a Minister under the election laws, has been left with no option other than tendering his resignation.
This is the second time Mr. Singh has faced defeat in the Assembly election in Karanpur, as he had occupied third position in 2018, when Mr. Gurmeet Singh of Congress won the seat. The Congress has secured “sympathy votes” this time by fielding the departed MLA’s son, Mr. Kooner, who referred to his father’s legacy at the hustings and sought votes in the name of his family’s work for public welfare in the region.
With Mr. Kooner’s victory, the strength of Congress as the largest Opposition party in the 200-member Assembly has increased to 70 seats. Mr. Kooner told journalists in Karanpur after his victory that the people in the constituency, feeling humiliated by the BJP’s move, had rejected the ruling party and even the Union Ministers who had come there for campaigning, and made the democracy win.
“This is also the victory of my father’s 40-year-long relationship with Karanpur… This victory is dedicated to the public service works of Mr. Gurmeet Singh,” Mr. Kooner said. There was no official reaction from the BJP, though some of its leaders privately admitted that the result would make an adverse impact on the upcoming Lok Sabha election.
Former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Ashok Gehlot said the voters in Karanpur had taught a lesson to the BJP, which had flouted the code of conduct and ethics by making its candidate a Minister during the election. Pradesh Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra said justice had been done in the court of the public when the country’s constitutional institutions had forgotten their responsibility.
