Rajasthan follows tradition, shows Ashok Gehlot government the door
BJP winning 115 seats in a bitterly-fought election.
The perceived lack of anti-incumbency in Rajasthan, however, did not shield Ashok Gehlot from the state's dreaded five-year electoral itch as the Congress was restricted to a modest 69 seats. Several ministers, including Disaster Management Minister Govind Ram Meghwal, who was also the Congress' campaign committee chief, was defeated by BJP's Vishwanath Meghwal on Khajuwala seat.
Interestingly, the newly-formed regional party Bharatiya Adivasi Party (BAP) cornered 3 seats and Independents won eight seats.
MODI'S DOUBLE ENGINE
The Modi factor made up for faultlines within BJP, including the lack of a chief ministerial face. This is the first time in three decades that the saffron party did not have a chief ministerial face but the gamble paid off.
However, like in Madhya Pradesh, BJP's experiment of paratrooping members of Parliament to fight Assembly election delivered limited results with three of its seven MPs (Devji Patel, Bhagirath Choudhary and Narendra Kumar) losing. Modi's guarantee of development and a strong Hindutva push saw the party score a victory in the desert state.
Though the party did not project Vasundhara Raje Scindia as the CM candidate, she was publicly given a central place in all of Modi's rallies in the last leg of campaigning. In terms of castes, the influential Jat community favoured BJP.
REGION-WISE DISTRIBUTION
- All
- Madhya Pradesh
- Rajasthan
- Telangana
- Chhattisgarh
- Mizoram
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