Rajasthan polls make history as Speaker, Leader of Opposition, deputy lose

Jaipur: The Rajasthan Assembly election results have come as a shocker to both the Congress and BJP stalwarts. While many Ministers of the Ashok Gehlot government as well as senior leaders like the Assembly Speaker lost the polls, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Deputy Leader of Opposition have also lost the election.

While Speaker CP Joshi lost to Vishwaraj Singh Mewar by over 7,504 votes in Nathdwara, the LoP, Rajendra Rathore, a six-time MLA, lost to the Congress’ Narendra Budania by over 10,000 votes. Rathore in fact has changed his seat from Churu to Tara Nagar. Deputy LoP and former state president Satish Poonia lost to the Congress’ Prashant Sharma by 9,092 votes.

Once again, the trend of changing governments every five years has continued in Rajasthan as the BJP has gained majority in this Assembly election.

According to the Election Commission, the BJP won 115 seats and the Congress won 69 seats, while other candidates won 15 seats.

Accepting defeat, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has submitted his resignation to the Governor.

Meanwhile, the Bharat Adivasi Party, contesting elections for the first time, has won three seats. Except for Hanuman Beniwal, no candidate from his Rashtriya Loktantrik Party has won. Only two MLAs from the Bahujan Samaj Party, which has the status of a national party, have won, while the Aam Aadmi Party and Marxist Communist Party could not bag a single seat in the state.

There have been many shocking results in this election, 17 out of 25 Congress Ministers including Parsadi Lal Meena, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas and Mamta Bhupesh have lost these elections.

This time the people have again changed the government, but this is the first time that the Speaker of the Assembly as well as the LoP and Deputy LoP have lost.

After the BJP’s victory in Rajasthan, senior party leaders are holding meetings to form the Government. In Delhi, BJP President JP Nadda has called a meeting regarding Rajasthan in the evening. Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat has been called to Delhi.

–IANS