Rajasthan Election Results 2023 Highlights: BJP wrests power from Congress as Ashok Gehlot leaves Centre stage

BJP is set to form the government in Rajasthan. The saffron party won 115 seats, while Congress won 69 seats. 

Further Bharat Adivasi Party won 3 seats and Bahujan Samaj Party won 2. 

The BJP had not declared any CM candidate for BJP in Rajasthan till late in the day. The BJP top leadership has met in the BJP headquarters in Delhi to celebrate winning the Hindi heartland- Rajasthan. Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. 

Congress meanwhile sealed in a north and south divide in India by winning the Telangana Assembly elections. 

Eight independent candidates, including four BJP rebels, have won in the Rajasthan assembly elections. Among them is Chandrabhan Aakya who was replaced by the BJP with a relative of former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat in Chittorgarh but contested on his own.

Outgoing Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's OSD Lokesh Sharma on Sunday blamed him for the defeat in the assembly polls and said that his experience, magic and schemes could not bring the Congress back to power in the state.

Sharma, who was denied a ticket to contest the Rajasthan Assembly polls, said that Gehlot once again brought the Congress to the margins and has only taken away from the party but never been able to bring the party back to power.

Seventeen of the 25 ministers in the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan, including Govind Ram Meghwal, who also led the party's campaign committee, lost in the assembly elections.

The BJP returned to power in Rajasthan on Sunday, winning 115 seats out of the 199 where assembly elections were held last week.

The Congress, which was hoping to buck the trend of the incumbent being voted out in the state every five years, bagged 68 seats. The final result of only one seat was awaited and the Congress was leading by a narrow margin there.

After Congress' defeat in key states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, party leader Udit Raj on Sunday sought to put the blame on electronic voting machines and said such a result was not expected.

"Something must have happened with the EVMs otherwise such a result was not expected," he said in a post in Hindi on X.

"After today's election results, it seems that it is difficult for democracy and the Constitution to survive," the Congress Dalit leader, who was formerly a BJP MP from Delhi.

After Bharatiya Janata Party registered its thumping victory in Rajasthan, Union Minister and BJP leader Gajendra Shekhawat on Sunday took a dig at former Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot saying the people of the state have fulfil his wish of leaving the chair.

Recalling Gehlot's statement, Shekhawat said that Gehlot used to say that he wanted to leave the CM's chair but the CM's chair is not leaving him. "The people of Rajasthan fulfilled his wish and got him to leave the chair of the Chief Minister," added Shekhawat.

He further said that the magic of the magician (Gehlot) has ended, and Rajasthan has escaped the magician's illusion.

Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Sunday, while reacting to the Rajasthan assembly elections results where his party failed to win any of the 19 seats it contested, said he accepts the people's mandate and in the future party will look to strengthen its base in the state.

At the same time, Dushyant, whose party Jannayak Janta Party is BJP's ally in Haryana, congratulated the saffron outfit for its resounding poll triumphs in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, saying they worked "as a team and got its benefit".

“I sometimes think of leaving it, but the chief minister's post doesn’t leave me,” Ashok Gehlot famously said earlier this year, in part as a signal to the Congress top brass not to pick someone else for the job if the party wins the assembly polls.

Over the past several months Gehlot, 72, tried every trick up his sleeve -– he has his magician father’s blood running through his veins, after all -– to retain the post.

Gehlot introduced a slew of welfare measures, including cheaper cooking gas for the poor and a ₹25-lakh medical insurance scheme. The old pension scheme was back for government employees.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged victorious in the Rajasthan assembly polls and is set to form the government in the 200-member state Assembly, as the party has crossed the majority mark by securing 115 seats.

Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly and BJP leader Rajendra Rathore lost from Taranagar. He was defeated by Congress candidate Narendra Budania by a margin of 10,345 votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, "In my political career, I always refrained from predictions...But this time, I broke this rule. In Rajasthan...I predicted that Congress would not return in Rajasthan...I had confidence in the people of Rajasthan..."

The BJP wrested Rajasthan on Sunday winning 115 seats out of the 199 where polling took place as the Congress failed to buck the state’s three-decade revolving-door trend in which the voters have rejected the party in power.

Twelve hours after counting began, one result was still awaited with the Congress leading. On 68 other seats, its candidates were declared winners.

A slew of welfare schemes introduced by the Ashok Gehlot government in the run-up to the November 25 assembly polls fell flat before the aggressive BJP campaign, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Bharatiya Janata Party - BJP 115 Seats won

Indian National Congress - INC 68 Seats won

Bharat Adivasi Party - BHRTADVSIP 3 Seats won

Bahujan Samaj Party - BSP 2 Seats won

Rashtriya Lok Dal - RLD 1 Seats won

Rashtriya Loktantrik Party - RLTP 1 Seats won

Independent - IND 8 Seats won

In Udaipurwati Congress candidate Bhagawana Ram Saini is leading by a margin of 419 votes against Subhkaran Choudhary of BJP

The Congress on Sunday suffered a near wipeout in the Hindi heartland as it lost 3-1 to the BJP in the assembly polls, signalling the need to redraw its strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The party was trounced in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and is now left with only Himachal Pradesh in the north. It is ruling in only three states on its own and is in power in Bihar and Jharkhand as a junior partner in alliance with regional parties.

Congress turncoats lost their seats in Bari and Nagaur in the Rajasthan assembly elections on Sunday.

Girraj Singh Malinga, sitting MLA from Bari who switched over to BJP from the Congress, lost the seat to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Jaswant Singh Gurjar by a margin of 27,424 votes.

Former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha, who also joined the BJP and contested from Nagaur, lost to her Congress rival Harendra Mirdha by a margin of 14,620 votes, the Election Commission's website showed.

Nine out of 25 contesting ministers, including the chief minister Ashok Gehlot in the outgoing cabinet, managed to win while only three out of seven contesting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MPs lost the battle in the state assembly election held on November 25, with results declared on Sunday.

Four of seven BJP MPs who fought the Rajasthan Assembly elections won their respective seats while three others lost the polls.

Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) convener and Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal also won from the Khinwsar assembly constituency by defeating BJP candidate Rewant Ram with a narrow margin of 2,059 votes.

In the November 25 polls, the BJP had fielded Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari, Jaipur Rural MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Ajmer MP Bhagirath Choudhary, Alwar MP Baba Balak Nath, Jhunjhunu MP Narendra Kumar, Jalore MP Devji Patel and Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena.

Diya Kumari, member of erstwhile Jaipur royal family, won Vidhyadhar Nagar seat with a huge margin of 71,368 votes. She defeated Congress candidate Sitaram Agarwal.

Vidhyadhar Nagar seat was held by former vice president Bhairaon Singh Shekhawat's son-in-law Narpat Singh Rajvi but he was shifted to Chittorgarh in order to accommodate Diya Kumari.

However, Rajvi lost Chittorgarh seat where BJP rebel Chandrabhan Singh Aakya won. Rajvi managed to secure third position there.

Two-time MP and former Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore won Jhotwara seat by defeating Congress candidate Abhishek Choudhary with a margin of 50,167 votes. Rathore, a retired army officer and former Olympian, is BJP national spokesperson.

Alwar MP Baba Balak Nath, who contested the elections from Tijara seat, won with a margin of 6,173 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Imran Khan.

Rajya Sabha MP Meena also won the Sawai Madhopur seat with a margin of 22,510 votes. He defeated Congress candidate Danish Abrar, who was the advisor to outgoing Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

The three BJP MPs who lost the assembly polls included Narendra Kumar (Mandawa seat), Bhagirath Choudhary (Kishangarh) and Devji Patel (Sanchore).

The BJP made a major dent in Congress by breaking into its traditional SC and ST community vote bank. The BJP won 22 of 34 SC seats, Congress 11 and one by independent. Similarly of the 25 ST seats, the BJP won 12, Congress 10 and BAP 3.

Bharatiya Janata Party -  114 seats won

Indian National Congress -  68 seats won

Bharat Adivasi Party -  3 seats won

Bahujan Samaj Party -  2 seats won

Rashtriya Lok Dal - 1 seats won

Rashtriya Loktantrik Party - 1 seats won

Independent -  8 seats won