Bengal, Rajasthan vote in Assembly, Lok Sabha bypolls
Jaipur/ Kolkata: Two Lok Sabha seats and one Assembly seat in Rajasthan and a Lok Sabha and Assembly seat in West Bengal went to polls on Monday. The turnout was 76 per cent in West Bengal’s Uluberia LS constituency, 75.3 per cent in Noapara Assembly seat. Rajasthan’s LS seats — Ajmer and Alwar — saw turnouts of 65.2 and 61.86 per cent. The Mandalgarh Assembly seat saw 78.78 per cent turnout.
For chief minister Vasundhara Raje and state Congress president Sachin Pilot, bypolls for Ajmer and Alwar parliamentary constituencies and Mandalgarh Assembly seat are like board exams, where parents are more anxious than children. More than candidates, it is their pride which is at stake.
All three seats recorded more than 60% voting on Monday, which is good considering that the winner will get less than a year to hold the seat. Now, eyes are on February 1, when counting will take place.
Here victory or defeat, both will have the same mark — Vasundhara Raje. But for Congress, there will be three cheerleaders for triumph while defeat will have only one address — Pilot. Not surprisingly, both Ms Raje and Mr Pilot campaigned hard till the end.
While Raje as a sole campaigner divided her time between Ajmer and Alwar, Mr Pilot had it easy as he was allowed to focus on Ajmer — the seat that he represented till 2014 because his burden was shared by former Union minister Bhanwar Jitendra Singh who was leading the campaign in Alwar.
From that point of view, these bypolls are crucial even for Rahul Gandhi because all three seats are linked to his trusted lieutenants — Sachin Pilot, C. P. Joshi and Jitendra Singh Bhanwar.
The outcome of Ajmer will test the “relevance” of Congress state Chief Sachin Pilot.
He switched to this seat after his family borough Dausa became a reserved seat in 2009. However, he lost to Sanwar Lal Jat whose death has necessitated the by- poll.