Jaipur. After the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a setback in the Lok Sabha elections in Rajasthan, all eyes are now on the future of Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma. After winning the assembly elections in December last year, the party high command chose Bhajanlal Sharma to lead the state. Sharma’s cabinet colleague Kirori Lal Meena has hinted at resigning due to the party’s defeat in the seat under him, due to which Chief Minister Sharma may face challenges. This move is likely to put pressure on other ministers, whose areas also performed poorly in the Lok Sabha elections. At the same time, the influence of state president Govind Singh Dotasara is expected to increase in the Congress as the party has been able to win some seats in the state after a decade.
In the Lok Sabha election results declared on Tuesday, the BJP won 14 out of 25 seats while the Congress and opposition alliance India won 11 seats. This time, the BJP lost 10 seats as compared to 2019. While BJP’s former ally RLP contested the Nagaur seat in alliance with the Congress and emerged victorious. Compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP’s vote percentage in 2024 declined by 9.23 percent while the Congress registered a marginal increase of 3.67 percent in its vote share. The BJP’s election campaign in the state was run by Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma along with BJP state unit president CP Joshi. Since Joshi himself was contesting from the Chittorgarh Lok Sabha seat, the Chief Minister held election rallies and meetings across the state.
The BJP suffered a major setback in eastern Rajasthan, where the party lost Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Tonk-Sawaimadhopur and Dausa seats. Bharatpur is the hometown of Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. Congress has won all these seats. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma held 89 public meetings and rallies in Rajasthan and 62 in other states including Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Odisha, West Bengal and Haryana. An aide of the Chief Minister said, in a period of three months, the Chief Minister took several decisions to stop paper leaks and control the law and order situation. A tripartite agreement was signed on Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) between the Central Government and the Rajasthan Madhya Pradesh governments to meet the water needs of eastern Rajasthan.
He said that apart from this, an agreement was signed with Haryana regarding Yamuna water to solve the water problem in the Shekhawati region. Another BJP leader said, the BJP government started working with a proactive approach to fulfill the promises made in the election manifesto. The Chief Minister led the election campaign, but the defeat was due to various factors like farmers’ issues, SC and ST reservation issue raised during the election campaign. These are the obvious reasons for the defeat of party candidates. Five current MLAs in the state (3 Congress, 1 RLP, 1 BAP) have won the Lok Sabha elections and by-elections will be held on these assembly seats in the coming months. The BJP leader said that the performance of the Chief Minister and the government will be assessed in the assembly by-elections, as the Lok Sabha election revolved around central issues. On the party’s defeat in Rajasthan compared to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, he said that the impact of the farmers’ movement and resentment among the Jat community, SC/ST people over reservation was more in Rajasthan than in those states. He said, there may be some challenges ahead, including assembly by-elections, but he is likely to continue as the Chief Minister.
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