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November 29, 1998
ELECTIONS '98
COMMENTARY
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Congress wins historic 150 seats in RajasthanThe Congress has matched the 21-year-old record of 150 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan assembly, set by the Janata Party in 1977. All the 197 results have been declared, with the election in three constituencies -- Bhim, Kumbhalgarh and Mundwa -- countermanded. The Bharatiya Janata Paty has bagged 33 seats, the Janata Dal three, the Bahujan Samaj Party two, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India-Marxist one each. Independents have captured seven seats. This is the third time the Congress has attained a two-thirds majority in the state assembly -- it did this first in 1972 followed by 1980. Only 11 of Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat's 39 ministers survived the debacle. Among the ministers who won the poll were Bhanwar Lal Sharma from Jaipur's Hawa Mahal, V P Singh from Aasind, Nand Lal Meena from Pratapgarh, Dr Ram Pratap from Haumangarh and Sonwar Lal Jati from Bhinai. Among the 28 ministers humbled in the poll were Deputy Chief Minister Hari Shankar Bhabra, Home Minister Kailash Meghwal from Shahpura, Higher Education Minister Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi and Energy Minister Ghanshyam Tiwari from Chomu. The BJP received the first drubbing from its stronghold in the Pink City when two of its nominees lost to the Congress as the counting process ended swiftly in the five constituencies where electronic machines had been utilised. The party retained only one seat in the state capital. The state sees the Congress back in power after eight years. Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who tendered his resignation on Saturday evening, won his Bali assembly seat recording his membership in all the eleven Houses in the state since 1952. Former Congress chief minister Shiv Charan Mathur (Mandalgarh) and leader of the Opposition in the outgoing assembly Parasram Maderna (Bhopalgarh) won with impressive margins. Shekhawat regretted that the people did not heed the BJP's stand that development was the main issue. Rajasthan Pradesh Congress president Ashok Gehlot said the people were dissatisfied with the BJP government's ''failure on all fronts.'' Gehlot did not agree that the BJP suffered due to the anti-incumbency factor. He said the people were against the BJP for its ''total misrule''.
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