Jaipur: It was a repeat of 2014 in Rajasthan as the BJP that lost the Assembly elections just six months ago, bounced back with venom as NDA won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats for the second time in a row. The BJP won 24 seats and one seat went to its alliance partner Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, whose chief Hanuman Beniwal, an MLA, defeated Congress’ Dr Jyoti Mirdha in Nagaur.
The BJP blanked the Congress and the party’s Chief Minister’s son Vaibhav Gehlot, who contested from Jodhpur, where Gehlot aggressively campaigned for his son, lost to Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by over 2.64 lakh votes. Congress fared poorly under an invisible Modi wave that was more intense than 2014.
In Assembly elections, the Congress had won 100 seats in a House of 200 and the party was expected to win 13-14 seats, but it failed to repeat its magic. Prominent among the BJP winners were two royals, the princess of Jaipur Diya Kumari won from Rajsamand, while former Chief Minister Vasundhara R Raje’s son Dushyant Singh won for the third consecutive time from the Jhalawar seat, which was once held by her mother.
Union minister of state Arjun Meghwal also registered his third victory from Bikaner by defeating the Congress candidate Madan Meghwal, a former IPS officer. Congress’ Jitendra Singh, a close associate of Rahul Gandhi and a former Union minister, lost the Alwar seat. Jitendra Singh is a scion of the Alwar royal family.
Another key loser was Manvendra Singh of Congress who lost to Kailash Choudhry of the BJP. Ashok Gehlot accepted the party’s defeat and said the Congress would gracefully accept the verdict of the people. But he blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for flouting moral code of conduct and spread hatred and enmity while campaigning.
”We fought for our ideals and lost. But Modi fought for regaining power shedding all the ideals. Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje described the party”s victory as a big victory of the nationalists and credited Modi for leading the party to landslide victory that she described as ‘Sunamo’ (tsunami).
