Rajasthan election: Ashok Gehlot has reiterated that the Congress will retake power, despite the BJP criticizing the party for female violence and the paper leak scandal.
Twenty-third Rajasthan assembly election: On Saturday, November 25, votes are being cast for the 199 seats up for grabs in the Rajasthan assembly. While the vote counting will take place on December 3, polling in 199 of the 200 constituencies started at 7 a.m. and will end at 6 p.m.
Based on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity, the Bharatiya Janata Party is trying to unseat the Ashok Gehlot government, while the ruling Congress is considering a second term in office due to anti-incumbency.
Top news on the 2023 Rajasthan assembly election:
- Chief electoral officer Praveen Gupta announced that the poll in this constituency has been postponed due to the passing of Gurmeet Singh Koonar, the Congress candidate and current MLA in Sriganganagar’s Karanpur seat.
- 1,862 candidates will be chosen by a total of 5,25,38,105 voters. Among them are 2,261,008 new voters in the 18–19 age group, out of the 1,70,99,334 voters in the 18–30 age group.
- The Congress leaders running for office in the assembly election include Ashok Gehlot, the chief minister, Govind Singh Dotasra, the state Congress chief, CP Joshi, the assembly speaker, and a number of ministers, including Shanti Dhariwal, BD Kalla, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Saleh Mohammad, Mamta Bhupesh, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Rajendra Yadav, Shakuntla Rawat, Udai Lal Anjana, Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, Ashok Chandna, and former deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot. Niranjan Arya, a former chief secretary, is attempting his hand at politics by running for Congress.
- The contestants include former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, BJP lawmakers Rajendra Rathore, deputy leader of the opposition and former state president Satish Poonia, and MPs Diya Kumari, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Baba Balaknath, and Kirodi Lal Meena. Vijay Bainsla, the son of Gurjar chieftain Kirodi Singh Bainsla, who passed away, is also running as a BJP candidate.
- The Congress has nominated 97 MLAs, including seven independents and one from the BJP, Shobharani Kushwah, who was kicked out of the saffron party last year. The BJP has awarded tickets to 59 MLAs, including defecting Congress MLA Girraj Singh Malinga, six Lok Sabha members, and one Rajya Sabha member.
- A prominent figure who defected from the Congress to join the BJP is Jyoti Mirdha, a former MP from Nagaur who is standing for assembly. Hanuman Beniwal, the convener of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and MP for Nagaur, is also running for assembly. Together with Chandrashekhar Azad’s Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshiram), the RLP is running in the election.
- The Congress has designated one seat, Bharatpur, for its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), similar to the 2018 election, whereas the BJP is running for every seat. Subhash Garg, the incumbent MLA, is running for the party’s candidacy in the Bharatpur seat, which is held by the RLD.
- There are currently 107 MLAs for the Congress, 70 for the BJP, two RLP, two for the CPI (M) and Bhartiya Tribal Party (BTP), one for the Rashtriya Lok Dal, 13 independents, and two open seats in Udaipur and Karanpur.
- Amidst the criticism of the Congress by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for internal strife, Ashok Gehlot demonstrated togetherness on Friday by sharing a video on social media featuring Sachin Pilot pleading with people to vote for the Congress.
- The opposition BJP used a number of major issues, including farmers’ suicides, violence against women, and paper leak scams, as a point of contention with the government Congress. Gehlot has reiterated that the Congress will take back control, ending the three-decade tradition of switching between two and one governments in the state in the West.
- According to Praveen Gupta, there are 36,101 polling locations throughout the state. In all, 41,006 voting places are located in rural areas and 10,501 in metropolitan areas. Voting will be conducted throughout the state using 65,277 ballot units, 62,372 control units, and 67,580 VVPAT machines, including reserves. According to Gupta, 1,02,290 security guards have been sent out to guarantee a calm election.
Ratnavali