New Delhi: The Congress was upbeat over electoral prospects in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in the state on a day the party nominee defeated a minister in a by-poll in Rajasthan, weeks after the BJP government was formed. “Though the BJP tried to influence the outcome of the Karanpur by-poll by making its candidate a minister, the people rejected them. It has been just a month since the BJP came to power in the state and it is already facing unpopularity. This shows that the BJP’s assembly polls victory was not real. The by-poll result has given us a big boost ahead of the Lok Sabha polls,” AICC general secretary in-charge of Rajasthan Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa told ETV Bharat.
“The people understood that our strength has not come down after losing the state polls. We did good work in the past five years, but could not effectively communicate with the voters. The BJP struggled to identify the new Chief Minister despite a majority. The 2024 parliamentary polls will not go entirely with the BJP in the state,” he said, referring to the saffron party winning all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in 2019.
The Karanpur by-poll was won by Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Koonar, who defeated BJP minister Surenderpal Singh. The Congress had objected to Singh being named a state minister in the cabinet of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on December 30 and later taking up duties as a minister as he was still a BJP candidate for the by-poll.
“First, they should not have named him a minister as he was a candidate and it violated the poll code operational in the assembly by-poll. They assumed they would win, but the people have taught them a lesson,” said Randhawa. The Karanpur constituency's election was postponed due to the untimely demise of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kooner, who died 10 days before polling.
Voting for 199 of the 200 assembly seats was held on November 25. The Congress lost power by getting 69 seats against 115 of the BJP. Later, the Congress fielded his son Rupinder in the crucial Karanpur by-poll. The Congress now has 70 lawmakers in the Assembly. In a post-poll review with party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, an old power tussle between the camps of former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot had been identified as one of the reasons behind the Congress’ debacle in Rajasthan besides anti-incumbency against half of the lawmakers.
However, both Gehlot and Pilot campaigned for the party candidate in the Karanpur by-poll, which also tested the confidence of the state BJP unit as well as that of Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra. Dotasra, a close aide of Gehlot, was likely to be removed as part of the reshuffle that the Congress chief brought about in the state team after the poll loss. However, after the by-poll win, Dotasra was likely to remain in the post though Kharge is likely to name a new CLP leader soon.
According to party insiders, the thought is whether to have a person from the upper caste Jat or backward Meena or Gurjar communities as the new CLP leader. Gehlot is part of the 2024 national alliance panel and Pilot is in-charge of Chhattisgarh.
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