Rajasthan bypolls to test Cong govt performance; will win both seats: Pilot

Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress president Sachin Pilot on Tuesday said Mandawa and Khinwsar assembly bypolls will be the test of the work done by his party government and claimed it will win both the seats with "huge" margins.

The bypolls were necessitated after Khinwsar (Nagaur) MLA Hanuman Beniwal and Mandava (Jhunjhunu) MLA Narendra Kumar (BJP) were elected to Lok Sabha in May this year.

"The bypolls are the test of the work of the government and we are prepared for that. We will win the seats with huge margin. When the Congress was in opposition for five years, we won all bypolls and this time, we are in the government and there is no reason for not winning the bypolls," Pilot told reporters here.

"The state government's first and foremost priority is to make the life of people better. We ought to do whatever is possible to help people at personal, social and administrative level," he said.

Pilot said it is important for every public representative to stay connected with people.

While Congress has fielded former MLAs Rita Chaudhary in Mandawa and Harendra Mirdha in Khimsar, the BJP has given ticket to Sushila Sigra in Mandawa and is contesting the bypolls in alliance with MP Hanuman Beniwal's Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) on Khimsar where Beniwal's brother Narayan Beniwal is the alliance candidate.

The two seats go to bypolls on October 21.