Rajasthan polls: Smooth sailing for BJP, set to form govt

The BJP appeared set Sunday to wrest Rajasthan from the Congress with the party leading or winning on 114 seats, way past the Congress which was ahead on 70.

• Also read: Exit polls ring true: Congress dominates in Telangana, BRS faces anti-incumbency

Sources said Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was meeting Governor Kalraj Mishra in the evening to hand over his resignation.

By the afternoon, the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates had won 20 seats and were leading on 94 more with the counting of votes still on. The Congress had won nine and was ahead on 61.

Polling was held on 199 of the 200 seats in the state assembly on November 25.

As the counting trends came in, BJP leader Vasundhara Raje said people have rejected the "misgovernance” by the Congress and accepted her party’s 'suraaj' (good governance).

The former CM, who won the Jhalrapatan assembly constituency by a margin of 53,193 votes, said the imminent victory also gave a chance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to serve the people after the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.

Raje is being counted among the frontrunners for the chief minister’s post in Rajasthan. The BJP had not declared its CM face during the election campaign.

The BJP’s Diya Kumar too won in Vidhyadhar Nagar by 71,368 votes.

CM Gehlot was leading in Sardarpura and his former deputy Sachin Pilot in Tonk.

Celebrations broke out at the BJP’s state headquarter as the party crossed the majority-mark, in terms of trends.

Groups of women workers at that office raised slogans hailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “The BJP is going to get a thumping victory and will form the government,” a party worker said.

Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat took a dig at Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, saying his “magic” was over.

“The 'magic' has ended and Rajasthan has come out of the spell of the magician. People have voted for the honour of women and for the welfare of the poor,” he said.

Gehlot’s father performed magic shows, and the CM has said in the past that he assisted in some.

Shekhawat asserted that the BJP will form the government in the state with a huge mandate.

The election in Sriganganagar's Karanpur seat was postponed due to the death of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Koonar.

The Bharat Adivasi Party had won one seat and was leading on two. The Bahujan Samaj Party won one seat and led on another. The Rashtriya Loktantrik Party led on two and the Rashtriya Lok Dal on one.

Independent candidates were leading or winning from seven seats.

In the current Assembly, the ruling Congress has 107 MLAs, BJP 70 and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLPT) three. Also, the CPI(M) and Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP) have two seats each and the Rashtriya Lok Dal one.

There are 13 independents in the outgoing assembly and two seats (Udaipur and Karanpur) are vacant.

Postal ballots were counted first. This was followed by the counting of votes polled through electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Altogether 36 counting centres were set up in 199 assembly constituencies.

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