Karanpur poll: Another election, another loss for daily wager Titar Singh

Titar Singh, 78, is used to losing elections. So the result of the Karanapur assembly poll on Monday wouldn't have surprised him.

The habitual contestant who has fought about 30 elections so far got 1,223 votes in this election, in which Rajasthan minister Surendra Pal Singh, the BJP nominee, lost to Congress rival Rupinder Singh Koonar.

This secured Titar Singh, a daily wage labourer, the fourth place, higher than the NOTA (None of the Above) option.

Titar Singh has contested every election in Rajasthan, from sarpanch to Lok Sabha, since the 1970s and forfeited his deposit every time but that hasn't deterred the Dalit community leader from trying his luck.

"Why should I not fight? The government should give land, facilities... this election is a fight for rights," Titar Singh had told PTI in an interview in November last year.

According to Election Department data, Koonar won the Karanpur election with 94,950 votes. BJP's Surendra Pal Singh got 83,667 votes, Aam Aadmi Party's Prithipal Singh got 11,940 votes and 1,034 people opted for NOTA.

Titar Singh, who lives in '25 F', a small village in Karanpur, has contested 10 Lok Sabha elections, 10 assembly elections, four zila parishad director polls and four sarpanch polls.

He received 938 votes in the 2008 Rajasthan assembly elections polls, 427 votes in the 2013 state polls and 653 in the 2018 elections.

Voting for 199 of the 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan was held on November 25. The result was declared on December 3. While the BJP won 115 seats, the Congress got 69 seats.

The Karanpur election was postponed due to the death of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Koonar.