Cong wins Mandawa seat, BJP ally RLP retains Khinvsar
JAIPUR: The Congress won the Mandawa seat while the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) gave its ally, BJP, some reason to cheer as they bagged the Khinvsar seat as results for the assembly bypolls were declared on Thursday.
Congress’s Rita Chaudhary won the Mandawa seat by a handsome margin of 33,000 votes defeating Sushila Sigra of the BJP while RLP’s Narayan Beniwal defeated Harendra Mirdha of the Congress by a narrow margin of 4630 votes on the Khinvsar seat.
The Congress now has 107 MLAs in the 200-member state assembly, the BJP has 72 and the RLP has 3.
For the Congress the victory has come as a much-needed relief, as the party has been bogged down with infighting which has affected the performance of the government as well as the organisation.
Chief minister Ashok Gehlot congratulated Chaudhary for her thumping win in a tweet. He said that everyone had fought the Khinvsar bypoll unitedly; while in the Lok Sabha polls the difference between the two parties had been 5,50,000, just five months down the line, a defeat margin of 4630 votes was equivalent to a victory for the Congress.
The BJP fared poorly and voters seem to have rejected the political narrative of nationalism and revocation of Article 370.
A loss would not have been the way newly-appointed state BJP chief Satish Poonia would have liked to open his innings. But the results, which came on his birthday, came as a shock and will put pressure on him to prove his mettle within the party.
He tried to defend the party’s performance, saying that the result on the Mandawa seat was not a mandate in favour of the Congress or Gehlot. “The election was decided on local equations and issues. Issues of farmers, unemployment and law and order are still relevant,” he said.
Poonia added that the Congress had misused government machinery but had been unable to win the Khinvsar seat which shows that discontent against government is still palpable.
Political commentator Narayan Bareth said results were a wake-up call for all three parties. He said the results were a shot in the arm for the Congress. “The Congress has performed well despite ministers speaking out in public against the government. It shows that if the Congress can put up a united front and can strengthen the organisation, it can bounce back,” he said.