Rajasthan Likely To Face Interesting Battle On Seven Assembly Seats

Jaipur: Seven assembly seats of Rajasthan to go for by-polls on November 13th. This is for the first time in Rajasthan that by-elections are being held for this number of seats in the first year of the tenure of any government. Although, the results of these by-polls are not going to change the political dynamics of the state but are expected to impact the internal politics of both BJP and Congress.

Of the seven seats for which by-elections have been declared today, five seats Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Khinvsar, Deoli-Uniara and Chaurasi have become vacant as the MLAs of these seats got elected for the Lok Sabha, while Ramgarh and Salumber got vacant due to the demise of the MLAs of these seats.

The seat holdings of these seven seats in the assembly elections were four of Congress and one each for BJP, Rashtriya Loktantratmak Party (RLP) and Bhartiya Adivasi Party (BAP).

As the ruling BJP holds a full majority with 114 seats in 200 members legislative assembly and Congress with 66 seats is far behind, the results are not going to change the political dynamics of the state, but it is likely to impact the internal politics of both BJP and Congress.

For CM Bhajan Lal Sharma, this will be the second major political challenge after not so good Lok Sabha results. Besides this, there will be no Modi magic for him as this is just a by-election.

The sources in the party said that Sharma, who is facing internal threats also with one of his senior ministers Kirori Lal Meena had resigned just after the Lok Sabha results, the adverse results of by-polls are likely to give voice to those who are waiting for the “right time”.

On the other hand, the challenge for Congress looks much bigger as the internal conflicts of its two prominent leaders Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot have not over yet, however, the party have made them busy in Maharashtra by appointing them senior observers in different regions, but three seats Jhunjhunu, Dausa and Deoli-Uniara belongs to the Sachin Pilot camp leader and the results of these seats will directly impact Sachin's leadership.

Besides this, the INDIA alliance which was formed during the Lok Sabha elections with RLP and BAP is also under question as both the parties have announced to contest on their respective seats while the local leaders of Congress are not in favor of any alliance at state level. The state president Govind Singh Dotasara said that decision on alliance will be taken by the party high command.