Shifting Sands Of Allegiance Buries Bjp In Rajasthan

The remarkable performance of the Congress in Rajasthan, which won 18 of the total 25 seats, can be traced to 12 seats that shifted allegiance in the 1998 poll.

While the Congress retained nine of the 13 seats it had won in the 1996 elections, it gained nine this time all from the BJP which can be attributed to a record anti-incumbency factor of over 60 per cent an all time high in the state. However, Congress also conceded two seats to the BJP, and one to an independent candidate - expelled Congress leader Buta Singh from Jalore (SC).

BJP, on the other hand, retained only three seats, while wresting two from the Congress to take its total tally to five against it in 1996. Prominent winners included Balram Jhakar (Congress) who won by a margin of 1,90,625, Rajesh Pilot (Congress) by 61,125 votes, and Vasundra Raje (BJP) by 63,569. Buta Singhs winning margin was an impressive 1,66,085 while Balram Jhakhar won by 1,90,625 the largest margin in the state.

 

The BJPs performance in the 1998 poll witnessed a record decline of 61.5 per cent, while the Congress registered an increase of about 38.5 per cent.

The Congress dented several traditional strongholds of the BJP by snatching Kota, where Ram Narain Meena defeated Jaswant Singh by 17,428 votes; Pali, where Meetha Lal Jain bagged 26,730 votes and Ajmer where Prabha Kapur took a lead of 5,772. The BJPs misery was compounded by the defeat of as many as four members of the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat ministry. They were energy minister and state party president Raghuveer Singh Kaushal, transport minister Rohitashwa Kumar, labour minister Nandlal Meena and Jaswant Singh, deputy leader of the BJP in the dissolved Lok Sabha.

The major losses for Congress included defeat of All India Mahila Congress president Girija Vyas to Shanti Lal Chaplot of the BJP by 11,447 votes and former Rajasthan chief minister Jagannath Pahadia from Bayana (SC) to Gangaram Kohli of the BJP by 4550 votes. The state, which witnessed a sharp increase in polling percentage from 43.4 per cent in the 1996 poll to 62.14 per cent in the current general elections, has assembly elections scheduled by the year-end. Meanwhile, Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said there was no threat to his government following BJPs debacle in the state in the Lok Sabha elections.

My government will complete its full term and assembly elections will be held by the end of this year as per schedule, he told reporters.

Shekhawat said it would not be correct to suggest that the reversal of BJPs fortune in the state was a vote against the state administration. Pondering over the causes of BJPs defeat, the Chief Minister said three factors probably contributed to the winning of Congress candidates in 18 of the 25 seats; mobilisation of the electorate on caste and communal basis against the BJP, lack of resources for the ruling party candidates and extraordinary display of money power by independents and other candidates.

On the national scenario, Shekhawat said the newly-elected members of parliament would not like to repeat the United Front experiment and would support BJPs efforts to provide a stable government at the Centre.

He said he was confident that the BJP would easily get enough support to provide a clean, healthy and stable government at the Centre.