Harboring 36 different communities alone, Rajasthan is politically significant for the leading national parties—BJP and Congress. Not to mention, among all its oddities, Rajasthan is the land of serial elections. Just last month, our attention was riveted on a fresh round of by polls held in Dholpur. Dholpur by election fever that lasted for more than two months, starting this February, heralded the start of ostentatious campaigns and ended in BJP’s landslide victory by a momentous margin of 38,648 today.
Rajasthan BJP had been out of power since 2013 after losing this constituency to BSP candidate B.L. Kushwah. After Kushwah was convicted in a murder case, 2017 bypolls presented BJP with a golden opportunity to stage their comeback and what a comeback it was! The party projected Shobha Rani as their candidate for the elections, despite facing criticism by Congress leaders. The opposition accused BJP of projecting a murder convict’s wife as their candidate. Nevertheless, it seems like CM Vasundhara Raje managed to perform her magic again. It was a smart decision on Raje’s part.
Shobha Rani scripted a historic victory in Dholpur 2017 bypoll elections, bagging 91,548 votes in process. The runner-up in this race is Congress’ former MP Banwarilal Sharma with 52,875 votes. 1,48,019 out of 1,91,887 voters (about 77.12%) casted their votes in Dholpur elections.
There’s this huge gap between the votes of Shobha Rani and Banwarilal Sharma—38,673. For the first time in the history of Dholpur, a political party has acquired a landslide victory by a margin of more than thirty thousand votes.
Following Rajasthan election commission’s announcement of final results, a huge mob of BJP workers, Raje followers and the general public of Dholpur congregated outside Dholpur palace. CM Raje opened the grand entrance of her palace to greet and thank her voters, who congratulated her on this earth-shattering victory. The CM personally thanked the voters for believing in her vision of a progressive Rajasthan. Meanwhile, celebrations started in and outside BJP office. BJP workers lit firecrackers, distributed sweets and shared pleasantries among each other.
It seems like grass isn’t greener on the other side. Shattered by their loss in Dholpur bypolls, Sachin Pilot—the star campaigner for Congress accused BJP for tampering with the EVMs. As always, the Congressmen haven’t learnt their lesson yet. They’re too reliant on their cast card for winning the upcoming 2018 parliament elections. If things continue the same way, it’ll be hard for Congress to retain their respect in Rajasthan. Meanwhile BJP is enjoying the sweet fruits of their reformatory ideas and development-oriented vision.
