Congress headed for massive win in Rajasthan

Jaipur, May 16 (IANS) The Congress seemed headed to sweep Rajasthan with the party bagging 13 seats and leading in another seven constituencies by late afternoon Saturday.

In the 2004 elections, the Congress had managed to win only four seats of the state's 25 constituencies.

The BJP, which had won 21 seats in 2004, has won two seats while it is leading in four others.

Kirori Lal Meena, an independent, was ahead of his rival - another independent - Qummer Rubbani Chechi, a Gujjar from Jammu and Kashmir, in Dausa (reserved) constituency.

Congress candidate Sachin Pilot was declared elected from Ajmer, where he defeated the BJP's Kiran Maheshwari by over 76,000 votes. In Bhilwara, C.P. Joshi, state president of the Congress, was declared elected. He defeated his nearest rival, the sitting MP V.P. Singh of the BJP, by over 135,000 votes.

The winning Congress candidates included Girija Vyas who was declared elected from Chittorgarh, defeating her nearest rival - sitting MP Srichand Kriplani of the BJP - by over 72,000 votes. Two union ministers in the Manmohan Singh cabinet, Namonarain Meena and Seesh Ram Ola, were leading in their respective constituencies of Tonk-Sawai Madhopur and Jhunjhunu.

While Meena was ahead of K.S. Bainsla of the BJP by a slender margin of 472 votes, Ola had taken a comfortable lead of more than 65,000 votes over his nearest BJP rival Dasrath Singh Shekhawat.

In a major shock for the BJP, Manvendra Singh, son of former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, was trailing behind Congress' Harsh Chaudhary by over 110,000 votes in Barmer.

But in Jhalawar-Baran constituency, BJP candidate Dushyant Singh, son of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, was leading by over 23,000 votes.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, while thanking the voters, said: 'They (the voters) have voted for policies of the Manmohan Singh government at the centre.'

Addressing a press conference here, Gehlot looked visibly happy with the party's performance in the state said that it was a victory of the people.

'In Rajasthan, people were fed up of the previous Vasundhara Raje government of the BJP. The people have taught a lesson to them (BJP) in the assembly polls (2008) and now again they have given them a final lesson,' Gehlot said.

Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje said that it was time for the BJP to 'introspect' and see what went wrong.