Rajasthan bypolls: A tough contest between BJP and Congress

Jaipur : Rajasthan’s seven bypolls seats will see a tough contest between major rivals, BJP and Congress, experts believe.

“Seats like Dausa, Ramgarh and Khinsar will see a neck-to-neck fight between Congress and BJP while Salumber, Deoli Uniara and Jhunjhunu seem to elect the BJP candidates. Results of the Haryana elections have added momentum in Rajasthan as well,” said political expert Manish Godha.

Bypolls were held on seven seats in Rajasthan namely Jhunjhunu, Alwar, Dausa, Deoli Uniara, Nagaur, Chorasi and Dungarpur. Elections were necessitated on seats like Dausa, Deoli Uniara, Jhunjhunu, Khivsar and Chorasi after the ruling MLAs here contested Lok Sabha polls and won to become MPs.

These include Murarilal Meena from Dausa, Brijendra Singh Ola from Jhunjhunu, Harish Meena from Deoli Uniara, Hanuman Beniwal from Khivsar and Rajkumar Roat from Chorasi. Two seats meanwhile fell vacant due to the death of BJP MLA Amritlal Meena from Salumber and Congress MLA Zuber Khan from Ramgarh.

Two important seats which have become points of discussion are Khinvsar and Dausa. Khinvsar is important for RLP because if they lose they will come to single digits in the Legislative Assembly. Hanuman Beniwal' wife Kanika is contesting from this seat. Hanuman won the Khinvsar seat as MLA and then contested as MP.

Dausa Assembly will also be a litmus test for Minister Kirodi Lal Meena. The BJP has fielded Kirodi's brother Jagmohan Meena while his nephew Rajendra Meena is the MLA from Mahua in Dausa.

The Deoli-Uniara seat has also become crucial after independent candidate Naresh Meena slapped the SDM during bypolls which triggered arson and violence later.

BJP state chief Madan Rathore said that BJP will make a clean sweep this time while attacking the opposition, saying that the Congress leaders were engaged in infighting and were busy in leg pulling.

"Voters have understood that they (Congress) yearn to grab power and hence are trusting us and will make us win on all seats," said Rathore.

Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra has also claimed that Congress will win more seats than BJP as the voters have seen the work of the BJP government in the last 11 months.

Counting will start on Saturday at 8 am in the seven district headquarters of the state, Jhunjhunu, Alwar, Dausa, Tonk, Nagaur, Udaipur and Dungarpur. First of all, postal ballots will be counted which will be followed by counting of the EVM votes.

State Chief Electoral Officer Naveen Mahajan said that the counting of votes through EVMs will start at 8:30 am.

“98 tables have been set up. Counting of votes through EVMs will be done in a total of 141 rounds for all seven assembly constituencies. Counting will be done in 18 to 22 rounds depending on the number of voters,” he said.