The Congress scored a clean sweep in the three bypolls in Rajasthan, snatching one Assembly seat and two parliamentary seats, as the results were announced on Thursday.
Coming as this result does within weeks of the Gujarat Assembly elections where the Congress along with some independents stalled the BJP from reaching 100 seats, the result is a shot in the arm for the Grand Old Party.
The victory could not have come at a better time: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was trying to woo voters through the budget and singing paeans to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for India's economic growth in the last four years.
Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot said the result indicated that youth of this country had pronounced that 'politics of polarisation' does not work. Pilot has been working overtime in the state the last few years.
Rajasthan is slated to have Assembly elections towards the end of 2018.
The Mandalgarh Assembly seat, and the Ajmer and Alwar parliamentary seats saw the Congress candidates lead from the very early rounds of counting.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted, “Well done Rajasthan Congress. Proud of each and every one of you. This is a rejection of the BJP by the people of Rajasthan.”
The defeat of the BJP candidates could be laid at the doors of anti-incumbency of the Vasundhara Raje government, as well as some very controversial decisions the government has taken over the last two years.
Sources in the party also mention dissidence in the party as one of the reasons for the snubbing of Raje. There are also suggestions that Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has fallen out of favour with BJP president Amit Shah, resulting in very little party support for her government.
In fact, the Congress appears to have sailed through easily in both the parliamentary constituencies. There were 23 candidates in Ajmer and 11 in Alwar; sources say some were propped up to defeat official party candidates.
Ever since the BJP came to power at the Centre, the social fabric of Rajasthan has seen a violent change. Most recently it was over the film Padmaavat, wherein the Shri Rajput Karni Sena had made life difficult for everyone including the BJP leadership and the government. Cow vigilantism had added to that, particularly in Alwar.
