New Delhi: In the husband-versus-wife contest on Rajasthan’s Danta Ramgarh seat, incumbent Congress MLA Virendra Singh beat his wife, Dr Rita Singh Chaudhary, by nearly 98,000 votes Sunday.
While Chaudhary was a distant fourth, BJP’s Gajanand Kumawat — the runner-up in this race — lost by 7,997 votes.
Fighting on a ticket from the Haryana-centred Jannayak Janata Party (JJP), Chaudhary polled 1,567 votes while her husband Singh secured 99,413.
What makes the contest even more interesting is that Virendra Singh won the seat by a mere 920 votes in 2018, with the BJP coming a close second. The BJP has never won the Danta Ramgarh seat, which holds a significant Jat population, considered a strong vote-bank of the JJP.
Virendra inherits the political legacy of his father, Narayan Singh, the former state president of the Congress. The party has won seven of the nine elections in Danta Ramgarh since 1980, with Narayan Singh being the victorious candidate six times out of these. He had also earlier won the seat in 1972.
During the poll campaign, Rita Chaudhary had told ThePrint that her fight against her husband was “not personal”. However, one of her close aides said she thought that her husband’s family had held her back in politics even though the Congress was ready to give her a chance.
Once a Congress member, she is now the president of the JJP’s women’s wing in Rajasthan.
Speaking about her candidature last month, she had said: “It is not about standing against anyone. As zila pramukh (of Sikar), I have worked a lot. The previous time, the Congress made him the party candidate (from Danta Ramgarh) and I remained among the people. But time doesn’t wait for anyone. You have to take a stand at one point. For yourself and the public as well. Now I have taken a stand for the people and their issues.”
Chaudhary, who claims to have worked hard for the victories of her father-in-law and husband in the 2013 and 2018 polls respectively. She added that she had asked the Congress for a ticket in 2018, but her husband was picked instead.
While she blamed a “communication gap” for the rift with her husband, Singh chose not to speak about his wife and her decision to fight the elections.
Confident of his victory last month, he had told ThePrint that Rita’s entry into the fray would not affect his vote. Singh said he was banking on the “development” brought to the area by him and his father.
The only problem that remained to be resolved in Danta Ramgarh constituency, according to him, was water — which happened to be Rita Chaudhary’s main campaign issue.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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