Raje wins battle of Dholpur
CM’S REVENGE Shobha Rani Kushwaha defeats Congress’s Banwari Lal Sharma; govt machinery misused, says Pilot
In a major morale boost for Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje, BJP candidate Shobha Rani Kushwaha won the Dholpur by-election, defeating her nearest rival the Congress candidate Banwari Lal Sharma, by 38,648 votes. She got 91,469 votes while Sharma got 52,821.
With this, BJP’s tally in the Rajasthan Assembly becomes 161.
Raje and several ministers of her cabinet had camped in Dholpur for many days, making the by-election a prestige war. Congress top leaders, including state chief Sachin Pilot and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, also spent many days campaigning in the constituency.
Sharma has been MLA from Dholpur five times and had defeated Raje in 1993, forcing her to change her Assembly constituency to Jhalrapatan, Jhalawar.
The by-election was necessitated after sitting BSP MLA BL Kushwaha was convicted in a murder case and suspended from the Assembly. His wife, Shobha Rani, joined the BJP on February 15.
After the result was declared, Shobha Rani, accompanied by party workers, went to Dholpur Palace to meet Raje.
The chief minister said people of Dholpur cast their vote in favour of BJP for development and that her government was committed to developing the city even though the government had only 20 months left for the Assembly election.
State Congress president Pilot, reacting to the result, said the party had lost to the Rajasthan government and not to the BJP.
“I haven’t seen such an election, like of Dholpur, as singular focus of CM and her government. We have lost but to Rajasthan government. The chief minister made an issue to win polls at any cost, as she was losing her seat,” Pilot said addressing reporters at PCC office.
He alleged that the government machinery was openly misused in Dholpur as the CM and her ministers, party MLAs and MPs stayed in the constituency for several days.
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