Congress leads in Rajasthan Assembly Elections, crosses majority mark

As the counting of the votes is underway, the Congress is leading in the Rajasthan Assembly Elections, crossing the majority mark of 100 seats. The current count shows the Congress currently leading with 114 seats, with 76 seats to the BJP and 1 to other parties.  The Congress has currently secured 25 more seats than they had secured in the last Assembly election in 2013.

Polling in the state took place on December 7 in 15,687 centres, across the 199 constituencies. The state saw a voter turnout of 74.21 percent of its 4.74 crore strong electorate. Counting is underway for 199 seats of the 200 seats in the Assembly. The one seat, which did not go to the poll, was Ramgarh in Alwar district, due to the death of BSP candidate Laxman Singh. He passed away on November 29.

According to PTI, nearly 35 counting centres have been set up in the state. Except for Jodhpur and Jaipur, which have two counting centres, there is one counting centre in each district.

The BJP and the Congress are the major parties in the state. Rajasthan has a history of changing governments in every election. Since 1998, the BJP and the Congress have been in power alternatively with neither party able to retain power for a second term. While exit polls predict that the Congress will win the lion’s share of the 199 assembly seats, particularly given Rajasthan’s proven anti-incumbency factor, both parties have expressed confidence that they will emerge victories.

In the run-up to this election, the BJP has seen several high-profile defections to the Congress, including of Manvendra Singh, son of former MP and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh.

Current Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is contesting from Jhalrapatan constituency. Meanwhile, the Congress party in the state is facing an internal conflict: If the party wins in the state, it will have to select a Chief Ministerial candidate from between political rivals Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot. Ashok Gehlot is contesting from the Sardarpura seat, while Sachin Pilot is contesting his first assembly election from Tonk.

Of the 2,274 candidates who contested in Rajasthan, 189 are women. The Congress in Rajasthan has fielded 15 Muslim candidates, in stark contrast to the BJP’s decision to field one single Muslim candidate.