Jaipur: Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje led the BJP to a stunning victory over Congress in the Rajasthan assembly polls, returning to power after five years riding anti-Gehlot wave and garnering support from non-Meena, Jats and upper castes.
The BJP is all set for a thumping victory in Rajasthan, securing 162 out of a total of 199 seats, with Congress licking its wounds with 21 seats. Others including the pro-Meena National People's Party and smaller parties won 16 seats.
BJP has already started making preparations for the oath-taking ceremony of Vasundhara Raje as the chief minister.
"She is likely to take oath in the next two or three days at Janpath, in front of the state assembly in Jaipur," a party source said.
Election in one constituency, Churu, was countermanded due to the death of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Jagdish Meghwal. The poll is now slated for Dec 13.
The BSP won two seats and was leading on one more seat, and candidates of the National People's Party (NPP) were declared elected on two seats and were leading on three more seats.
Prominent BJP leaders who won include chief ministerial candidate Vasundhara Raje and Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria.
Raje was declared elected from Jhalrapatan constituency. She defeated her nearest rival from the Congress, Meenakshi Chandrawat, by over 60,000 votes.
The biggest win was recorded by Ghanshyam Tiwari of the BJP who defeated his nearest Congress rival by a margin of over 62,000 votes.
Vasundhara Raje, who is also the BJP state president, said: "I was confident that we will win. It is a vote against the Congress party's poor governance in the state."
"I thank Narendra Modi (BJP prime ministerial candidate) and Rajnath Singh (party president) for touring the state extensively and holding rallies."
The Congress, which won 102 seats in the last elections in 2008, recorded one of its worst defeats in the state.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of the Congress was declared elected from Sardarpura constituency. He defeated his BJP rival Shambhu Singh Khetasar by over 18,000 votes.
Among the candidates who lost the elections were senior Congress leader B.D. Kalla, Tourism Minister Bina Kak, Medical and Health Minister A.A. Khan, Urban Development Minister Shanti Kumar Dhariwal and Industries Minister Rajendra Pareek.
"We accept the people's mandate. My government in the state worked for the welfare of all. We launched various social welfare schemes too. There is no point in getting depressed. One party wins, another loses," Gehlot said.
Five main reasons are being attributed to the Congress debacle in Rajasthan:
A-Price rise led to widespread anger among voters cutting across castes, with Narendra Modi fuelling people's fury.
B- Anti-Meena caste sentiment: There was an undercurrent among other castes that if Kirori Lal Meena's NPP won handsomely, it would hold the government to ransom. While the Meena voters voted en bloc for NPP in Dausa, Karoli, Sawai Madhopur, Bharatpur and Alwar, the party itself won five seats. Kirori Lal Meena himself lost from Sawai Madhopur. The other castes decided to side with the BJP.
C- Upper castes mobilized in favour of BJP. Congress had even gone for quotas in promotion, and this was opposed by Samta Andolan and Mission 72. Gehlot government tried to crush this movement. The message went across the upper castes that Gehlot was anti-upper castes.
D- Anti-minorities sentiment: After the Gopalgarh incident and Survaal riots, Congress high command pulled up Gehlot for failing to protect minorities, just before the UP assembly polls. In this year's budget, Gehlot laid out the goodies for the minorities, and the majority community decided to react.
E- In the last six months in office, Gehlot went on a spree distributing laptops, tablets, sarees, blankets, pensions, cycles and free medicines. BJP sent out the message among the voters that the Congress was trying to buy their votes, and this step boomeranged.
