Jaipur/Kolkata: By winning three out of three seats in Rajasthan’s by-election Congress has sent out a strong message to the ruling Vasundhara Raje led Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government, that the BJP will not have it easy now in State Assembly Election, scheduled to take place at the end of 2018.
Meanwhile in Bengal, its ruling party, All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC) won both the Uluberia Parliamentary constituency as well as Naopara assembly seats comfortably, without having to face any competition from any political party.
Sajda Ahmed, wife of late Sultan Ahmed, who had died in September 2017, won from Uluberia with a record margin of over 4.74 lakhs.
With Sajda winning, TMC has increased the number of its women representatives in the parliament. After her win, it now has a total of 12 female members, standing second to Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), which has 30 female members out of its 276 MPs. TMC has 33 MPs in 16th Lok Sabha.
Speaking to eNewsroom, minutes after her victory, Sajda said “I will first be finishing off the pending work of my husband. It’s my primary agenda, as of now. I very excited about working towards making quality education accessible to every child.” On being asked, one issue that she would like to raise at the parliament, she said, “The women reservation bill for women in parliament is in the cold storage. The present government which is claiming to a crusader for women cause should definitely have this bill passed.”
Not just Uluberia, TMC has also won the Naopara assembly seat, which was earlier with Congress. Here its candidate Sunil Singh won with a margin of over 63000 votes.
However, with the Congress – CPIM tie-up no longer being in place, the grand old party slipped from its third position to fourth in Bengal by-polls, despite having scripted a major comeback in Rajasthan politics, where it has won all three seats —Prliamentary for Ajmer and Alwar and Mandalgarh (assembly).
In 2014’s Lok Sabha election, BJP had won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats from the desert state, and with this loss, its tally has now been reduced to 23.
Ajmer parliamentary seat was significant as Rajasthan’s state Congress Committee chief Sachin Pilot had lost from this very seat in 2014 election. Now Raghu Sharma won by a margin of 8000 votes.
In Alwar, Dr Karan Singh defeated BJP by a huge margin of 118000 votes. Alwar has been in the limelight off late for the continuous attack of Muslim dairy farmers by the cow vigilantes. In Mandalgarh, Vivek Dakad of Congress won the assembly bypoll by 12997 votes.
After the results, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said, “This has happened because of Vasundhara Raje led BJP government’s ‘negative’ attitude as they either rejected or slow down all the social welfare works of previous government.”
A jubiliant Sachin Pilot, the state Congress chief, further enhanced his attack on BJP and tweeted, “it’s the start of the end of BJP in the state.”
Political observers believe that the winning of an opposition party in a by-election always sends out a strong message to ruling party.
Post result declaration, Vasundhara Raje did not address media, however, accepting her defeat, she has tweeted that democracy is ultimately for and of the people.
