Lok Sabha polls held in the first two phases on 25 parliamentary constituencies in Rajasthan are going to be a litmus test for the Bhajanlal government when the results would be declared after counting of votes on June 4th.

The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have picked up Bhajanlal Sharma, a 57-year old, new MLA of Jaipur’s Sanganer seat and former Sarpanch of Bharatpur district in December 2023, with a sole objective to work for Lok Sabha polls campaign and aim to achieve a hat-trick all-seat win in the general election. The CM with his two deputies and a full cabinet indeed did 24×7 party work in the last five months and left no stone unturned to achieve the goal.

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After last evening’s Exit Poll by various media agencies predicting 2-7 seats victory for the Congress and its allies, the BJP leaders are a little nervous and doing reassessment on hat-trick all-seat win possibilities. Even the CM had a closed door meeting with party’s top organisation heads including state president CP Joshi and senior leaders here last night to review their calculations on all seats. They all opined that the BJP will definitely win all 25 seats in Rajasthan. They all ignored the Exit Poll’s projections for Rajasthan but trusted the national level exit polls favouring BJP and NDA.

Meanwhile, exuding confidence, state Pradesh Congress Committee president G S Dotasara told ‘The Statesman’ that the Congress will break the hat-trick all-seat win dream of the BJP by winning 8-12 LS seats when results would be announced on the counting day.

“The Congress and India bloc are most likely to win seats in Shekhawati belt including Jhunjhunu & Sikar, Dausa, Tonk-Sawaimadhopur, Barmer, Jalore, Sri-ganganagar, Nagaur and Kota,” Dotasara indicated.

It is worth mentioning that the Bhajanlal government had lost the Sardarshar assembly bypoll to Congress in December 2023 after taking reins of the new government.

Besides securing all 25 Lok sabha seats, the BJP government is also facing a tough task to win the Bagidora assembly bypoll, which was held simultaneously with LS polls and whose result will also be declared on June 4th. Mahendra Singh Jeet Malviya has vacated this seat after joining the BJP and he contested Banswara LS on the saffron party ticket.

Total electors turnout in 25 LS seats this time in the two phases — April 19 and 26 April — was 61.53 per cent as against 66.34 per cent in 2019 general elections, a dip by 4.81 per cent.

There was a triangular contest on two LS seats, neck and neck contests on 11 LS seats due to anti-incumbency of Union Ministers, sitting MPs, Lok Sabha Speaker and State Party President, and straight contests on 12 LS seats due to new faces and 8 women candidates.

Fates of altogether 266 contestants including BJP’s eight bigwigs including Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, four Union Ministers Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Kailash Choudhary, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Bhupendra Yadav, five sitting MPs PP Choudhary, Bhagirath Choudhary, Dushyant Singh, SS Jaunapuria, Sumedananad Sarswati, and State BJP President C P Joshi, and four sitting MPs would be decided on June 4.

The Banswara seat faced the triangular contest and prestige of the BJP on its political move would be tested on the counting day as Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya, who left the Congress MLA-ship and joined the saffron party to become MP.

INDIA bloc-supported candidate Raj Kumar Roat (sitting MLA) also challenged the seat on his Bharatiya Adivasi Party (BAP) ticket. Congress candidate Arvind Damor, who did not withdraw his nomination despite the party’s whip, is also expecting Tribal votes.

Another suspense is the result of Kota sea, where Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla who fought a neck and neck poll battle with BJP-RSS rebel Prahalad Gunjal, who is new Congressman.

Besides the BJP, Congress’ former assembly Speaker Dr C P Joshi, sitting MLA Harish Meena, and Vaibhav Gehlot, son of former Congress Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, are impatiently waiting for their poll luck to be known on the D-day.

In Barmer, an Independent candidate and sitting MLA Ravindra Singh Bhati has made the election trilateral with BJP Minister Kailash Choudhary and Congress’ Umeda Ram Beniwal in the fray.