Congress steals the show in Rajasthan

Party wins Mandalgarh Assembly as well as the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats by huge margins

In a spectacular showing, the Congress on Thursday stole the show in Rajasthan by wresting the Mandalgarh Assembly as well as the Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats from the ruling BJP by huge margins, triggering wild celebrations.

Congress activists burst firecrackers and danced to drum beats outside the party office here as Vivek Dhakar trounced Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Shakti Singh Hada by 12,976 votes in Mandalgarh. The BJP was stunned.

Karan Singh Yadav in Alwar defeated Jaswant Singh Yadav of the BJP by a whopping 196,496 votes while Raghu Sharma in Ajmer worsted the BJP’s Ramswaroop Lamba by 84,414 votes. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress did not win a single seat in Rajasthan.

Raghu Sharma secured 611,514 votes against the 527,100 of Lamba. Karan Singh Yadav notched 642,416 votes against 445,920 secured by the BJP’s Jaswant Singh.

Dhakar got 70,146 votes while Hada secured 57,170 in the by-election held on January 29, Election Commission officials said.

The election in Mandalgarh followed the death of BJP MLA Kirti Kumari due to swine flu in August last year.

Congress candidates led from the beginning in vote count in both the Lok Sabha seats and edged past the BJP in Mandalgarh after initially trailing at the second spot.

A total of 42 candidates were in the fray in the three seats, all of which were held by the BJP. There were 23 contestants in Ajmer and 11 in Alwar.

With Assembly elections scheduled later this year in Rajasthan, Congress leaders insisted that the verdict was a rejection of the BJP.

Congress leader and former union minister Sachin Pilot demanded Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s resignation on moral grounds.

“It is a victory for people, party workers and all leaders,” Pilot told the media.

“Young people in this country have realised that the politics of polarisation doesn’t work,” he said.

Congress leader