Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Koonar defeated ruling BJP’s Surinder Pal Singh from the Srikaranpur assembly seat of Rajasthan by a margin of over 11,283 votes.
Rupinder, who is the minister of state for IGNP project and agriculture marketing in the BJP government, is the son of late Gurmeet Singh Koonar (former Congress MLA), who passed away after a short illness at AIIMS in Delhi on November 15.
The Election Commission rescheduled the elections to the seat on January 5 in the wake of Gurmeet Singh Koonar’s death.
Elections to the 199 assembly constituencies were already held on November 25 and results announced on December 3.
Surendra Pal Singh was made MOS (Independent charge) by the Bhajan Lal Government despite the fact that he had not contested the polls. The Congress opposed his swearing-in as MoS and even registered a complaint against the BJP candidate with the Election Commission (EC) for flouting election laws and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), especially its clause 32. But the EC has not responded to the Congress’ objections till now.
Congratulating Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Kunnar on his victory, former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot wrote on X, “This victory itself dedicated to late Gurmeet Singh who devoted his life to the public service works of Kunnar”.
“The people of Srikaranpur have defeated the pride of the Bharatiya Janata Party. The public has taught a lesson to the BJP, which flouted the code of conduct and morality by making its candidate a minister during the elections,” Gehlot said.
Accusing the ruling BJP government of flouting the MCC, the PCC president said the voters have rejected the BJP government within a month of its formation.