The Congress flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: Fighting together 5 months ago, they snatched 11 Lok Sabha seats from the BJP in Rajasthan - however, Congress, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and Bharatiya Adivasi Party (BAP) have decided to contest the Rajasthan bypolls to 7 Assembly seats next month separately.
BJP, which only has one sitting seat in the November 13 bypolls, is hoping to increase its tally by snatching one or two more seats in the Assembly riding on the division in the I.N.D.I.A bloc, which faced an election debacle in neighbouring Haryana where it was expected to win.
Of the 7 seats – Chorasi, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Jhunjunu, Khinwsar, Ramgar and Salumber – where bypolls are necessitated, Congress has four sitting seats while BAP and RLP have one each. BJP holds remaining seat.
Neither BAP nor RLP have fielded candidates in Congress sitting seats.
However, Congress has fielded candidates in Chorasi where BAP won last time and Khinwsar from where RLP won while BAP has fielded a candidate in Salumbar, which is a BJP sitting seat and where Congress came second last time, as the parties failed to initiate a dialogue between them.
Sources said Congress did not take an initiative to discuss possible alliances with BAP and RLP while the smaller parties also did not reach out to the alliance leader.
In Khinswar, where RLP chief Hanuman Beniwal resigned after winning the Nagaur Lok Sabha seat, has fielded his wife Kanika. The 2023 Assembly polls saw Beniwal winning with a narrow margin of 2,059 votes while Congress polled 27,763 votes to come third after the BJP.
This time, Beniwal expected Congress to continue the alliance during Lok Sabha elections for an easy victory for his wife but the latter fielded Ratan Chaudhary from the seat.
Similarly, in Chorasi, where BAP won convincingly in 2023 polls, Congress has fielded candidate Mahesh Roat. BAP’s Rajkumar Roat, who resigned from the seat after his Lok Sabha victory, had polled 53.92 per cent votes in the 2023 elections, while BJP and Congress received 20.37 per cent and 13.64 per cent votes respectively.
In BJP-held Salumber, BAP has also fielded a candidate. In 2023, BJP won with 37.54 per cent votes while the Congress had polled 30.66 per cent votes with BAP bagging 24.23 per cent votes.
Chandrasekhar Azad-led Asad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) has fielded candidates in Jhunjhunu and Ramgarh, both held by Congress. In Ramgarh, ASP(K) had polled 35.08 per cent votes to come second after Congress, which had polled 44.4 per cent while BJP had polled 16.52 per cent. In Jhunjhunu, ASP(K) had polled 1.59 per cent.