BJP gains 19.04 per cent votes in Raj clean sweep

Achieving its Mission-25, BJP not only swept the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state but also raised its poll percentage by 19.04 per cent over the 2009 general elections, according to Election Commission statistics.
BJP this time secured 55.614 per cent of the votes as against 36.57 per cent in 2009.
The voter turnout this time in Rajasthan was 63.01 per cent.
Congress, which had won 20 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2009, not only scored a zero this year but also lost 16.42 per cent vote share in the finaly tally.
Although in Karauli-Dholpur, the winning margin was 27,000, the other BJP candidates won by margins ranging from 45,000 to 4 lakh votes.

Ramcharan Bohra of BJP won the Jaipur seat by defeating the sitting Congress MP by the highest margin in the state of 5,39,345 votes.

Bohra secured 66.76 per cent of the total votes polled whereas only 25.06 per cent votes were polled by Mahesh Joshi, who secured 3,24,013 votes.
Union Minister and Congress candidate Chandresh Kumari Katoch lost her Jodhpur seat to BJP's Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by the second hightest margin of 4,10,051 votes.
Congress candidates CP Joshi, Girija Vyas, Gopal Singh, Anjana Udai Lal, Munni Devi and Shankar Pannu also suffered defeat by margins of more than 3 lakh votes.

Exit polls credited the Narendra Modi factor all over the country, but in Rajasthan the trend is that any party which wins the Assembly polls by a thumping majority does very well in Lok Sabha polls.
Thus, after the 2008 Assembly polls, Congress had formed the government in the state and, in the subsequent general elections in 2009, the party bagged 20 seats, leaving four to BJP while the remaining one went to an Independent nominee.
Similarly, in the 2003 Assembly polls, BJP had formed the government and in the 2004 parliamentary elections, the party secured 21 seats, leaving just four to Congress.

Four sitting BJP MLAs -- Om Birla, Bahadur Singh Koli, Sanwarlal Jat and Santosh Ahalawat -- won in Kota, Bharatpur, Ajmer and Jhunjhunu, respectively, and their Assembly seats would need by-polls to elect the new representatives.
Five other sitting MLAs -- Ashok Chandna (Congress), Dr KL Meena of NPP and Anju Dhanka, Hanuman Beniwal and Rajkumar Sharma (all Independents) were not successful in their bid to win a Lok Sabha seat.