New Delhi: Growing farmer distress, unemployment and communal and caste violence all contributed to the downfall of the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government in Rajasthan. The Congress has emerged as the single-largest party in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly and was headed to winning close to 100 seats out of the 199 for which counting took place on Tuesday. Election in Ramgarh was postponed due to the death of the BSP candidate.Though Raje won her own seat of Jhalrapatan, defeating former BJP leader Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh by a margin of 34980 votes, she could not reverse the “revolving door anti-incumbency” trend which began in 1993 after which the state has never seen an incumbent government to power.Congress welcomes all like-minded partiesLed ably by the two-time former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and the young Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot, the Congress managed to cross the half-way mark on its own. By late afternoon it became clear that the grand old party would form the next government in the state. Pilot then told the media that while he was sure about a complete majority, he would still “welcome all like-minded and anti-BJP parties to support us”.Also read: Congress to Form Govt in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh; MP Race Still TightThis statement was a far cry from the confidence Congress exuded when it decided to go alone in the polls without allying with others like Bahujan Samaj Party. As the numbers are fluctuating, it appears that the MLAs of BSP, which looks set to win six seats, could either end up in effecting a government formation as they did in 2008 or lend stability to a government.Gehlot, Pilot remain in race for CM postBoth Gehlot and Pilot won their elections comfortably, and in doing so have set up an interesting contest now for the CM’s job. While Gehlot won the Sardarpura seat for the fifth time, defeating Shambhu Singh of the BJP by over 40,000 votes, Pilot won by a huge margin from Tonk. He defeated transport minister Yoonus Khan, BJP’s lone Muslim candidate, by 54,179 votes.Another prominent Congress leader who won is C.P. Joshi, who defeated BJP’s Mahesh Pratap Singh in Nathdwara. Joshi had courted controversy earlier and was attacked by the BJP when, while taking a dig at the Modi-Shah duo, he declared that only Brahmins can teach Hinduism.Comfortable majority but vote share difference marginalThe result in Rajasthan on the whole was in line with most of the opinion polls which predicted a Congress win. But in the final analysis, the Congress fell short on the expectations. Everyone expected the Congress to win by a huge margin and with a significantly higher vote share. But that did not happen. The Congress vote percentage was just about 0.5 percentage points higher than that of the BJP.That, however, proved enough to take the party across the half way mark. It ended up winning …. seats. Another major gain for the Congress is that it improved dramatically over its performance in 2013 when BJP secured 45.50% votes while Congress managed just 33.31%.Many BJP ministers trouncedThe Congress leaders in this election also trounced a number of senior BJP leaders as they battled hard to wrest power.BJP’s Social Justice minister Arun Chaturvedi lost to Pratap Singh Khachariya in Civil Lines; water resources minister Rampratap lost to Vinod Kumar in Hanumangarh; and Industry minister Rajpal Singh lost to Lalchand Kataria in Jhotwara.Then Pramod Bhaya of the Congress defeated agriculture minister Prabhu Lal Saini by a huge margin in Anta.Also read: Congress Set to Dethrone Vasundhara Raje in RajasthanAnjana Udailal of Congress also emerged victorious over urban development and housing minister Srichand Kriplani in Nimbahera.Cooperative minister Ajay Singh lost by a big margin to Vijaypal Mirdha of the Congress in Degana. Similarly mines minister Surendra Pal Singh lost to Gurmeet Singh Kooner in Karanpur.Another BJP minister in-charge of Gaupalan, Otaram Devasi, lost to Independent candidate Sanyam Lodha in Sirohi. Lodha had contested the 2013 election on a Congress ticket but lost to Devasi. This time he thus extracted his revenge.Some BJP ministers just sneaked throughSome BJP ministers also survived after initial scares. Higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari, who was trailing early when the counting began, ultimately defeated Narayan Singh Bhati of the Congress by a big margin in Rajsamand.Likewise, after trailing initially, home minister Gulab Chand Kataria defeated former Congress Union minister Girija Vyas in Udaipur.Health minister Kalicharan Saraf was involved in a close contest with Dr. Archana Sharma of the Congress in Malviya Nagar.Some senior Congress leaders lost despite the party getting close to power. Leader of opposition Rameshwar Duddi lost to Bihari Lal of the BJP in Nokha.Rajasthan assembly speaker Kailash Meghwal registered his sixth win in state assembly polls. He defeated Mahaveer Prasad of the Congress by 74,542 votes in Shahpura.Prominent community leaders get throughIn Khinwsar, prominent Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, who was expelled from the BJP in 2013 after he accused the party leaders of corruption, won the election. He defeated Savai Singh Chaudhary of the Congress. Ahead of the assembly polls, Beniwal declared that his party would contest all 200 seats in the state. His community and party wields significant influence in Shekhawat and Marwar regions of the state.Also watch: Live: Assembly Elections Results 2018Another party which contested several seats was the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP). Though it secured less than 1% of total votes polled, it made its presence felt in two seats and opened its account, winning Chorasi. There, its candidate Rajkumar Roat defeated BJP’s Sushil Katara by over 12,000 votes. The party was floated by tribal leader Chhotubhai Vasava in 2017 and won two seats in the Gujarat assembly polls the same year.The Congress also played its cards well in the polls, and this showed in Sapotra. There, its candidate Ramesh Chand Meena defeated BJP candidate Golma Devi, wife of Meena community leader Kirodi Lal Meena.CPI(M) puts up a good show with support of farmersThe Communist Party of India (Marxist) also rode the anger among the farmers with the BJP government well and bagged two seats. In Bhadra, its candidate Balwan Poonia defeated Sanjeev Kumar of the BJP by a comfortable margin. In February this year, Poonia led a protest of farmers in front of the local State Bank of India branch and secured a refund of extra interest charged by the bank on their Kisan Credit Card accounts. In Shree Dungargarh, CPI(M) candidate Girdharilal also won by a comfortable margin.
