businessline exclusive election results coverage: In a significant turn of events, the BJP in Lok Sabha elections 2024 marked its worst performance in Rajasthan since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014. The party could secure only 14 Lok Sabha seats in the desert state this time, a stark contrast to the 2019 polls when it swept all the 25 seats in Rajasthan. In 2014, it lost just one constituency in the state.

BJP candidates declared victorious were Om Birla from Kota, Arjun Ram Meghwal from Bikaner, Bhupendra Yadav from Alwar, Dushyant Singh from Jhalawar-Baran, Manju Sharma from Jaipur, Bhagirath Choudhary from Ajmer, Lumbaram from Jalore, Mahima Kumari Mewar from Rajsamand, Damodar Agarwal from Bhilwara, Chandra Prakash Joshi from Chittorgarh, PP Chaudhary from Pali and Manna Lal Rawat from Udaipur.

The most convincing victory was for the BJP’s Mahima Kumari Mewar, who won the Rajsamand seat with a margin of 3,92,223 votes. A member of the erstwhile royal family of Mewar, Mahima is the wife of Vishvaraj Singh Mewar, the BJP MLA from Nathdwara of Rajsamand district.

BJP candidate Dushyant Singh, son of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, retained his Jhalawar-Baran seat for the fifth time by winning with 3,70,989 votes. Following him was BJP candidate from Jaipur Manju Sharma, who pipped Congress nominee and former minister Pratap Singh Khachariawas by 3,31,767 votes.

Among Union ministers, Meghwal won the Bikaner seat by a margin of 55,711 votes, Bhupendra Yadav clinched Alwar by 48,282 votes, and Gajendra Singh Sekhawat retained Jodhpur by 115677 votes. Sitting BJP MP from Ajmer, Bhagirath Chaudhary, retained the seat by winning with 3,29,991 votes. The biggest upset the BJP managed to pull off was in the Jalore-Sirohi constituency, where Lumbaram, a grassroots-level party worker, trounced former Congress chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot by a margin of 2,01,543 votes.

The Congress and its INDIA allies emerged victorious, among others, in parliamentary segments largely described as Jat belt -- like Rahul Kaswan in Churu, Brijendra Singh Ola in Jhunjhunu, and Sanjana Jatav in Baharatpur and Murari Lal Meena in Dausa. The Jat anger against the BJP was also reflected in the Haryana mandate as it lost seats to Congress in Hisar and Sonipat and was leading in Rohtaq. The BJP, however, had managed to reachout to the Jats which are a deciding factor in western Uttar Pradesh by stitching a pre-poll alliance with the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).

Congress general secretary Bhawar Jitendra Singh, a former MP from Alwar and Union Minister, told businessline that the results are a reflection of the poor performance of the BJP state government in the last six months and Narendra Modi’s arrogance. Congratulating Congress party workers, Jitendra Singh said, “The verdict reflects the poor performance of state government over last six months and the arrogance of PM Narendra Modi and the BJP’s high handedness. Besides, it also showed that voters liked pro-people schemes introduced by former CM Ashok Gehlot”.

The other problem in Rajasthan was a chief minister, Bhajan Lal Sharma, who appeared “weak” to the electorate. CM Sharma, a first-time MLA, could not ensure BJP candidate Ramswaroop Koli’s victory from his home seat of Bharatpur. Congress representative Sanjana Jatav, who had lost the assembly elections from Kathumar by a thin margin of around 500 votes, defeated Koli by over one lakh votes.

Listing out a couple of seats where candidate selection was far from ground realities, BJP state party sources said that the move to deny a ticket to sitting MP Rahul Kaswan did not go down well. Kaswan, who lost his ticket due to differences with BJP leader Rajendra Rathore, fought and won the Churu seat as a Congress candidate by 72,737 votes. He defeated debutant and paralympic gold medallist Devendra Jhajharia.

The CPI(M), an INDIA bloc ally of Congress, interestingly opened an account in Rajasthan. Its candidate, Amraram, won the Sikar constituency, defeating BJP’s Mahndrajeet Malyviya with 72,896 votes.

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