Jaipur: Rajasthan goes for the second and final phase of polling for the Lok Sabha election on Monday where the polling will take place for the 12 remaining seats. The first phase saw 68.13 per cent polling which was a record turnout and what is to be seen on Monday is whether the turnout would still match the first phase polling or not.
For the ruling Congress much is at stake as after Vidhan Sabha election loss in 2014, the BJP blanked Congress winning all the 25 seats. In 2014 when the BJP trounced Congress and won all the 25 seats it was in power with Vasundhara Raje as the Chief Minister. But despite in power, Congress is not enjoying any edge and it was found struggling in the first phase.
The party was in defensive in all the 13 seats including at Jodhpur where Vaibhav Gehlot, son of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was in a clash with the sitting BJP MP and Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The Congress hopes to wrest the Karauli-Dholpur seat. In 2014, Manoj Rajoria won this SC reserved seat by a margin of only 3.2 per cent votes.
The BJP won the Dausa (ST reserved) seat by a margin of 4.9% votes and at Nagaur, it won by a margin of 7.5% votes. Thus the Congress is expected to do better in the three seats this time. Out of the 12 seats fierce contest is expected in six seats of Alwar, Bikaner (SC -reserved), Ganganagar (SC-reserved), Nagaur, Jaipur (rural) and in Sikar.
The state witnessed massive campaign by the top leaders of both the parties and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, several Union ministers and a host of other leaders of the party campaigned here. The Congress depended on Rahul Gandhi.
In fact, it was Ashok Gehlot who was attacking Modi in the entire campaign and rather than speaking on the local issues and the achievements of his government in the last four months, he was trying to list the failures of the NDA government.
Even Modi chose to attack Gehlot with his caustic remark that Gehlot was fighting a losing battle and is trying to save his son Vaibhav Gehlot at Jodhpur from defeat. he predicted a massive victory for the BJP in the state.
