Jaipur, Nov 23 (PTI) The ruling BJP in Rajasthan on Saturday won five of the seven Assembly seats where bypolls were held, raising its tally in the house to 119, while the Congress and Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) bagged one seat each.
Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal's Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) faced a drubbing as it lost the Khinwsar seat from where Beniwal's wife Kanika Beniwal had contested.
Of the seven seats where bypolls were held on November 13, the Congress had four and the BJP, the RLP and the BAP had one each.
With the results of the bypolls declared on Saturday, the BJP has gained four seats, the Congress lost three seats, the RLP lost its single seat -- Khinwsar -- and the BAP maintained its tally by winning the Chorasi seat.
The 200-member Rajasthan Legislative Assembly will now have 119 MLAs of the BJP, 66 of the Congress, four of the BAP, two of the BSP, one of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and eight independents.
While the results have boosted the morale of the BJP leadership, especially Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma and state BJP chief Madan Rathore, the Congress said it would review its performance.
However, Cabinet minister Kirodi Meena was left sulking as his brother and BJP candidate Jag Mohan lost the Dausa Assembly segment -- the lone seat where the Congress registered a win.
Meena had left no stone unturned to ensure a victory for his brother who is a former bureaucrat. However, he lost by a narrow margin of 2,300 votes.
Meena had submitted his resignation after the party's defeat in several Lok Sabha seats in eastern Rajasthan in the general elections held a few months ago. The resignation, however, was not accepted.
The party gave a ticket to Jag Mohan from Dausa which many saw as an attempt to pacify the veteran leader.
Reacting to the result, Meena said he was pained but would continue to move on the path of struggle.
The BJP won Jhunjhunu (Rajendra Bhamboo), Deoli-Uniara (Rajendra Gurjar), Khinwsar (Rewant Ram Danga), Salumbar (Shanta Amrit Lal Meena) and Ramgarh (Sukhwant Singh) seats.
Salumbar seat fell vacant after BJP MLA Amrit Lal Meena died. The party gave ticket to his wife Shanta Meena who won the election, but with a narrow margin of 1,285 votes.
The BAP candidate stood second in the results while the Congress candidate secured the third position.
The Ramgarh seat in Alwar district also fell vacant following the death of Congress MLA Zubair Khan. The Congress party fielded his son Aryaan Zubair, hoping to get sympathy votes, however, he lost to BJP's Sukhvant Singh by a margin of 13,636 votes.
The Deoli-Uniara seat in Tonk district was won by BJP's Rajendra Gujar by a margin of 41,121 votes. His nearest rival was Naresh Meena, an independent candidate.
Naresh Meena had slapped an SDM during the day of polling on November 13, accusing him of forcing people to vote. The villages in Samravta village had boycotted polling and Meena was supporting them.
Meena and his supporters held a dharna outside the polling booth after slapping the SDM and when police removed them after polling was over, violence erupted in the village in which many vehicles were burnt and several policemen were injured.
Congress's Harish Meena was the MLA from Deoli-Uniara before being elected as an MP from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur.
The RLP lost the Khinwsar seat, a stronghold of party supremo Hanuman Beniwal who had vacated the seat after winning the Lok Sabha election.
BJP candidate Rewant Ram Danga won the Khinwsar seat by a margin of 13,901 votes. Danga had lost the seat in the 2023 Assembly election to Beniwal by a slim margin of 2,059 votes.
Beniwal won the Jat-dominated Khinsvar seat in 2008 as a BJP candidate and as an independent candidate in the 2013 Assembly elections. He formed the RLP and won the seat in the 2018 Assembly elections.
The Jat leader won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Nagaur in alliance with the BJP and fielded his brother Narayan Beniwal in the Assembly bypoll in Khinwsar. Narayan Beniwal won the bypoll.
The RLP was part of the INDIA bloc in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but the Congress decided to contest the bypolls without any alliance and fielded its candidate Dr Ratan Chaudhary in Khinwsar. However, she could secure only 5,454 votes.
Danga was a close associate of Hanuman Beniwal when he formed the RLP but later joined the BJP.
Former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha, who also joined the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections last year, was instrumental in bringing Danga to the saffron party fold.
Hanuman Beniwal and Jyoti Mirdha have been old rivals. Beniwal defeated Jyoti Mirdha in the 2019 and 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Bharat Adivasi Party candidate Anil Kumar Katara won the tribal-dominated Chorasi seat in the Dungarpur district, which fell vacant after BAP's Rajkumar Roat was elected to Lok Sabha this year from Banswara-Dungarpur seat
In Jhunjhunu, BJP candidate Rajendra Bhamboo won by defeating his nearest rival and Congress candidate Amit Ola by a margin of 42,848 votes.
Amit Ola is the son of Jhunjhunu MP and former minister Brijendra Ola. The defeat comes as a setback for the politically influential Ola family.
BJP president Rathore said the results have added to the responsibility of the BJP and the state government will continue to work to fulfil its promises made to the people.
"Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, all leaders and workers of the party worked hard to ensure the victory of the party in the Assembly bypolls," he told reporters at the party office where celebrations broke out.
CM Sharma also congratulated the newly elected MLAs.
PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra, however, said the BJP may have increased its tally, but the defeat of minister Meena's brother in Dausa was a defeat of the government.
"The ruling party usually has an edge in bypolls. We will analyse the results and reasons for the defeat," Dotasra said.