Cong’s emphatic ‘comeback’

The various exit polls show Congress as the party that is going to dethrone the BJP in the state. Its creditable on the part of the Congress that was dumped by the electorate in 2013 Vidhan Sabha election and it could get only 21 seats in a House of 200 roar back.

The party may come back to power barely six months before the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Now as the Congress is sitting pretty, it is expected that the party would show better results in the Lok Sabha polls in the State where it lost all the 25 seats.

It goes to the credit of Sachin Pilot, the 41-yearold Pradesh Congress president who rejuvenated the party from almost scratch. But he was not alone in the Herculean task, but it was the synergy of the former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Pilot that worked wonders.

The party as per the exit poll has done well in all the six regions of the state. The most happy thing for the Congress is its performance in the central Rajasthan where it could not open its account in the last election. Now in the central zone, the Congress is likely to emerge as the empathic winner, particularly in the Jaipur district which has the highest 19 seats.

The central region has 36 seats and the Congress is likely to win 20 seats.

After the central region, the Congress is likely to outscore the BJP in the northern zone that has 39 seats and the Congress hope to win 26 seats and in the southern region out of the 35 seats, it hopes to win 21 seats.

But the party is likely to share honours with the BJP in the western region that includes the two border districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer. This is the region where the tallest of the state Congress leader Ashok Gehlot comes. He was largely responsible for the disbursement of tickets in the state. The Congress was expected to sweep the poll in this region because of Gehlot, but here it has to share the honours.

In this region the Congress could win only three seats in last assembly elections, but Gehlot’s effort has helped the party revive its fortune. Yet, the party could have performed better, but is fielded weak candidates.

The Hadauti and the Matsya region are the strongholds of the BJP, but the Congress has improved tremendously there. In the Hadauti region that has 17 seats, the Congress would finish marginally ahead of the BJP but in Matsya it is expected to win an emphatic 20 out of 29 seats.

The Congress is expected to finish with 115 seats and the BJP that won 162 seats in the last election would lose 100 of its seats.