Elections 2014: Congress bites the dust in Rajasthan as BJP sweeps all 25 seats

JAIPUR: For the first time since the 1989 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress failed to open its account in Rajasthan with even its senior leaders biting the dust and rival BJP sweeping all the 25 seats.

Though in the 1989 Lok Sabha polls BJP had won 13, Janata Dal 11 and CPI(M) one, and the Congress lost all 25 seats in Rajasthan, and this time too the Congress lost all the seats, but at BJP's gain. Before 1989, the Congress had secured one out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in 1977, when former Prime Minister Choudhary Charan Singh's Bhartiya Lok Dal had won 24 seats in the state. Congress's Nathu Ram Mirdha had won from Rajasthan's Nagaur seat and Gargishankar Mishra from Madhya Pradesh.

After coming to power in the state with 163 MLAs in the last year's assembly polls riding on Modi wave, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje had set her eyes on 'Mission-25' and today she won in all constituencies.

Congress stalwarts and Union ministers Sachin Pilot, Jitendra Singh, Chandresh Kumari, Namonarayan Meena, Girija Vyas and six sitting Congress MPs Mahesh Joshi, CP Joshi, Ijyaraj Singh, Dr Jyoti Mirdha, Raghuveer Meena, and Harish Choudhary bit the dust in their home constituencies. BJP rebel and Independent candidate Jaswant Singh lost to behind BJP candidate Col Sonaram by a margin of over 87,000 votes in Barmer seat.

BJP candidates Santosh Ahalwat in Jhunjhunu, Chandra Prakash Joshi in Chittorgarh, Dushyant Singh in Jhalawar- Baran, Nihal Chand in Ganganagar, Arjun Lal Meena in Udaipur, Gopal Singh Shekhawat in Rajsamand, Subhash Baheria in Bhilwara, Devji Patel in Jalore, and Arjun Meghwal in Bikaner won their seats with huge margins.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhra Raje, who came up with the 'Mission 25', said, "The congratulations are not due to me but they are due to the public who voted for us. I am getting the news that the situation across the country is similar as it is in Rajasthan."