In the state where voters alternately choose between the major two parties, the Congress and the BJP, all eyes are set on 199 seats going to polls in Rajasthan on November 25. While the Congress is leaving no stone unturned to stop the three-decade-old tradition of voting out the incumbent government, its arch-rival BJP is banking on the anti-incumbency factor in the state.
Polling started from 7 am, and will continue till 6 pm, while the counting of votes will be taken up on December 3 for the 199 seats. Due to the death of the Congress candidate in Sriganganagar's Karanpur seat, Gurmeet Singh Koonar, who was also the sitting MLA, the election in this constituency has been adjourned.
As per the Election Commission of India, 5,26,90,146 voters will decide the fate of 1,875 candidates, including 183 female contestants, at a total of 51,507 polling stations in the assembly constituencies. In several Rajasthan constituencies, stakes have gone up due to fierce fights and strong claims for voter support.
Some of the key constituencies to look at, with the prevailing caste dynamics and key personalities for this election:
Jhalrapatan
The Bharatiya Janata Party candidate and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is contesting from Jhalarapatan. Raje has been winning the seat since 2003 from here with a huge margin. The only time when she witnessed some competition was in 2018 when she secured 54 per cent votes by defeating Congress leader and BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh's son Manvendra Singh. Congress this time has fielded Singh from Siwana constituency.
Sardarpura
It is a constituency in Jodhpur from where incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has won since 1998. This time the Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded Mahendra Singh Rathore from here.
Laxmangarh
Here the face-off will be between the two stalwart leaders from the Jat community which comprises 10 per cent of the population of Rajasthan – Congress' Govind Singh Dotasara and former Union minister Subhash Maharia of BJP. Dotasara, state Congress president, is the sitting MLA from this constituency. Back in the 2013 assembly polls, Dotasra had defeated Maharia by a huge margin. In 2016, Maharia, a three-term Lok Sabha MP from Sikar, joined Congress but returned to BJP in May 2023.
Tonk
A Muslim-dominated constituency from where Congress leader Sachin Pilot is being fielded for the consecutive second time. In 2018, Pilot defeated BJP's Yunus Khan by a margin of over 50,000 votes. This time BJP has fielded Ajit Singh Mehta from here.
Jhotwara
A Rajput-dominated constituency where the BJP has fielded its MP Rajyavardhan Rathore against Congress' Abhishek Choudhary. Rathore, a two-time MP from Jaipur rural will be contesting his first assembly polls.
Vidhyadhar Nagar
The constituency is witnessing a neck-to-neck contest between the BJP MP and member of Jaipur's erstwhile royal family Diya Kumari and Congress' Sitaram Agarwal. The Vidhyadharnagar constituency was won by BJP's Narpat Singh Rajvi. This time Rajvi was denied a ticket from here and was instead fielded from Chittorgarh.
Nathdwara
Here the BJP has fielded Vishwaraj Singh Mewar, a descendant of Maharana Pratap, against Congress veteran and Rajasthan assembly speaker CP Joshi.
Sawai Madhopur
Dominated by the Meena community (ST), the BJP has fielded sitting Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena for this seat, with Congress's sitting MLA Danish Abrar in the fray. In 2018, BJP candidate Asha Meena who lost by over a margin of 25,000 votes is now contesting as an independent.
Nagaur
The former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha, who had joined the BJP recently, is fielded against her uncle Harendra Mirdha who is the Congress candidate. The politics of Nagaur revolved around the influential Mirdha family. Nagaur is known for the dominance of the Jat community. The contest here is triangular with RLP, a jat-dominated party also consisting against the two stalwarts.
The Rajasthan Assembly comprises 200 seats, out of which 141 are general seats whereas 34 and 25 seats are reserved for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories. At present, the ruling Congress party has 108 seats, followed by the opposition BJP with 70 seats, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has two seats, Rashtriya Lok Dal one seat, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party three seats, Bhartiya Tribal Party two seats and there are thirteen Independent candidates as well.
In December 2018, the Congress in Rajasthan swept assembly elections even after it fell one seat short to cross the majority of 101 of the 200 assembly seats. Congress won 99 seats out of 199 seats on which elections were held, whereas the opposition BJP led by the former chief minister Vasundhara Raje was reduced to 73 seats from a huge tally of 163 seats. On the contrary, the Congress party performed well under the presidentship of party chief Sachin Pilot and rose from 21 seats to 99. Congress then appointed Ashok Gehlot as the chief minister for a third time and Sachin Pilot who was then heading the Pradesh Congress Committee in the state, was made his deputy. Later in 2020, Pilot was removed from both posts after he revolted against the Gehlot government.
