New Delhi: Congress’ Pramod Jain Bhaya has won the Anta bypoll in Rajasthan, with 69571 votes, beating his closest rival BJP’s Morpal Suman with a margin of 15,612 votes .
Bhaya is a former cabinet minister who served in Ashok Gehlot’s third tenure.
The prestige of both the BJP and Congress was at stake as the Rajasthan bypoll was being viewed as a political test for both parties, especially Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and former CM Ashok Gehlot.
The bypoll was also crucial for national vice president and former chief minister Vasundhara Raje as Suman is considered close to Raje and this is one of the few times that Raje herself campaigned actively for a candidate.
Raje who has kept a low-profile in recent years, was seen campaigning with CM Sharma. The BJP also tried to signal unity with a joint roadshow by Sharma and Raje days before voting. Anta constituency is in the Hadoti region, considered a stronghold of the BJP, especially Vasundhara Raje.
It was also the first political test of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and his government which has faced criticism from the Opposition as well as leaders from within the BJP itself.
Anta assembly seat fell vacant after the court sentenced former MLA Kanwarlal Meena, who had won the seat on a BJP ticket.
The Supreme Court had upheld his three-year rigorous imprisonment for “pointing a pistol at a Sub-Divisional Magistrate during an election”. He had surrendered in the trial court earlier this year in May and was disqualified from the assembly necessitating the need for the bypoll.
The seat witnessed a triangular contest as Independent Naresh Meena, who spent eight months in jail after slapping an SDM, also campaigned aggressively, with support from Hanuman Beniwal’s Rashtriya Loktantrik Party and the Aam Aadmi Party.
The constituency has alternated between the Congress and the BJP for the past several years.
The Congress conducted a roadshow in support of Bhaya, which saw Gehlot, Congress state president Govind Singh Dotasra, and Leader of Opposition Tika Ram Jully putting up a united front.
The Anta seat was carved out in 2008 and in the 2023 polls, BJP’s Kanwarlal Meena won, but his membership was later cancelled, following a conviction and a sentence of over two years in a decades-old criminal case.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)