Rajasthan polls: BJP makes inraods in BSP, Congress bastions; gets Dalit votes

Jaipur: The BJP inflicted a blow to the Congress and the BSP in Rajasthan by breaking into their traditional Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes community vote bank as it swept the Assembly elections in the state, winning 115 of the 199 where polling took place.

Of the 34 SC reserved seats that went to the polls, the BJP won 22 and the Congress 11. An Independent candidate won the other seat. Among the 25 seats reserved for ST candidates, the BJP won 12, the Congress 10 and the Bhartiya Adivasi Party three.

The BJP emerged victorious in Nadbai, Nagar, Karauli and Tijara which were won by the BSP in 2018. The Congress won Udaipurwati and Kishangarh Bas. All these seats were won by the Mayawati-led party in 2018 but the MLAs later joined the Congress.

During the election campaign, the BJP had made "atrocities against Dalits" one of the rallying points against the Ashok Gehlot government.

A little over two percentage points separated the vote share of the BJP and the Congress. In 2018, less than one percentage point separated the winner from the loser.

The BJP received 41.69 per cent of the total votes polled this time, an improvement of 2.41 percentage points over 2018, while the Congress and the BSP's vote share declined by 0.29 percentage points and 2.26 percentage points respectively. The BSP's vote share which was 4.08 per cent in 2018, reduced to 1.82 per cent this time.

The Congress got 39.53 per cent of the total votes polled in 2023.

The vote share of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) remained almost intact. The RLP's vote share was recorded at 2.39 per cent though it won only one constituency with Hanuman Beniwal managing to secure his seat. The party had won three seats in 2018 with a 2.4 per cent vote share.

Like in 2018, the AAP could not win any seat in Rajasthan this time too as it received just 0.38 per cent of the total votes polled.

Dalit support had come as a breather for the Congress in the 2018 Assembly elections, as it had won 19 out of the 34 SC reserved seats. The BJP had won 12 of these seats, the RLP got two, while one was won by a Congress rebel as an Independent. The BJP had won nine ST category seats in 2018 while 12 such seats were won by the Congress.

In the 2013 Assembly elections, the SC community had largely voted for the BJP, making it victorious in 32 of the 34 SC-reserved seats. At that time, the BJP had won 163 seats while the Congress' tally had plunged to just 21.

Rajasthan Assembly has 200 seats of which 199 of them went to poll on November 25. Election to the Karanpur seat of Sriganganagar was postponed following the death of the Congress candidate.