JAIPUR : After the announcement of the dates for the Lok Sabha polls, the battle lines are drawn in the desert state of Rajasthan. In 2014, Rajasthan was among the few states swept completely by the BJP, which won all the 25 seats. But the loss in the recent Vidhan Sabha polls has made it a challenge for the BJP to save its bastions.
The party, which won 163 seats in the 2013 Vidhan Sabha polls, is now reduced to 73 seats in the Assembly. The BJP fared badly in 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in the Vidhan Sabha polls, and the Congress has an edge over the BJP in the parliamentary constituencies of five Union ministers from Rajasthan.
Rajasthan has had a long trend of the party that does well in Vidhan Sabha polls going on to do very well in the Lok Sabha elections. The BJP now holds only 22 Lok Sabha seats: in the last by-elections the Congress won two seats, and the BJP MP from Dausa, Harish Meena, and the Congress MP from Ajmer, Raghu Sharma, both won in the Assembly elections and vacated their Lok Sabha seats. In the last Lok Sabha elections, the BJP got 54 per cent votes and won 25 seats, and the Congress got 32.6 per cent votes and did not win a single seat.
This time, the 4,86,03,329 voters, 56,08,672 more than the number during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, will decide the fortunes of the BJP and the Congress. In the recently held Vidhan Sabha polls, there was a difference of .50 per cent between the vote shares of the two parties, but the BJP was limited to 73 seats and the Congress got a majority with 100 seats. In 10 Lok Sabha constituencies, the BJP had to suffer massive defeats.
These were, Jaipur rural, Jaipur city, Jodhpur, Bharatpur, Barmer, Sawai Madhopur, Sikar, Alwar, Ganganagar, and Jhunjhunu. The defeat in the Assembly elections led to speculation that many BJP MPs and ministers in the Union government might look for safe seats, but Central minister Rajyavardhan Singh said that more than the party it was a few faces the people were angry with in the Vidhan Sabha elections, but the party would fare well in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.