The outcome of the election to the 199 seats of the Rajasthan Vidhan Sabha turned out to be more than a pleasant surprise for the Bharatiya Janata Party.

While party spokespersons were confident of a comfortable majority, no one within the party expected the BJP to win 162 seats and that too with comfortable margins.

In contrast, the Congress was reduced to 22 seats, its worst performance in the electoral history of the party. Almost all its ministers lost including the Pradesh Congress Committee chief Chandrabhan who came a poor third in the Mandawa Assembly segment of Jhunjhunu district.

He lost out to a Congress rebel Rita Chaudhary. The other non-BJP, non-Congress political fronts like the National People’s Party floated by former Speaker of the Lok Sabha P.A. Sangma and Kirodi Lal Meena, independent MP from Dausa, could not make much of an impact.

The NPP which had put up candidates in 136 seats, could not win more than half a dozen seats but managed to cause some damage to both parties. The Congress came third in many seats . A new outfit called the National Unionist Zamindara Party floated by a billionaire made its debut in the Assembly with two seats. The Bahujan Samaj Party that had six seats last time and which played a crucial role in propping up the Congress government in 2008 won only three. The Rajasthan Loktantrik Manch which was expected to throw some surprises could not make a dent.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) which was a constituent of the RLM, had three legislators in the outgoing Assembly but could not retain any of them. While two of the sitting MLAs lost to the BJP, three-time CPI(M) MLA Amra Ram, known for leading farmers’ struggles in Sikar lost to former PCC chief Narayan Singh of the Congress.

Significantly the electorate in the four States seemed to have voted on issues rather than in favour of specific individuals. Inflation, especially in food, as well as corruption were seen as the determining factors in these elections. This was one reason why the welfare schemes like free medicines, free diagnostic tests, pension for widows and the aged did not translate into votes for the Congress because the benefits either did not reach the intended segment of people or were just negated because of the high levels of inflation.

There was discontent too among farmers over issues of inadequate Minimum Support Price. The BJP in its campaigns focused hard on inflation and corruption but without mentioning what measures it would take to rein in the same.

In what has been a largely bipolar election, the BJP by securing a three-fourths majority, will form the Government on its own.

Gehlot’s government faced a dual crisis – that of double incumbency — directed against the Congress in the State and at the Centre.

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