Rajasthan by-polls on Sep 13

By-polls in four Rajasthan assembly constituencies - Nasirabad, Weir, Surajgarh and Kota South - will be held Sep 13. The counting of votes will take place Sep 16.

The by-elections were necessitated as BJP legislators Sanwar Lal Jat from Nasirabad, Om Birla from Kota South, Santosh Ahlawat from Surajgarh and Bahadur Singh Koli from Weir got elected to the Lok Sabha.

The main fight is between the Congress and the ruling BJP.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is touring these constituencies extensively, has asked her cabinet colleagues to remain in the constituencies till the polls are held.

Addressing a rally in Nasirabad, Raje said: "We have just started development works in the state and you will see the state being transformed completely in the next five years."

"The Congress has been taught a lesson here. We won on 163 of the assembly seats and also made a clean sweep in the Lok Sabha polls by winning in all the 25 constituencies," she said.

In the 2013 assembly election, the Congress had suffered one of its worst defeats in the history of the state by winning just 21 of the total 200 constituencies. The BJP had won 163 seats.

For the Congress, state unit president Sachin Pilot and former chief minister Ashok Gehlot are campaigning for the party candidates.

The Congress raised the issue of closing down of social welfare schemes, including free medicine and free medical diagnostic tests, launched by the previous Gehlot government.

"They are closing down schemes which we launched and which were benefiting thousands across the state," Gehlot said at a rally.