Rajasthan Assembly Election Results 2018: Congress taps into BJP anger to win seats in Barmer & Nagaur

The encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh, which angered Rajput community, and Manvendra Singh, son of BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh, joining Congress have made favourable impacts for Congress in the regions dominated by the community. The Congress has swayed away Barmer-Jaisalmer belt where Singh wields a considerable clout while in Nagaur and Churu, which Anandpal was active, voted to Congress ousting the saffron party on maximum seats. The Congress has won 6 seats out of 7 in Barmer and all two in Jaisalmer. The social engineering done by the Congress gave favourable results. Jats have been traditional voters in the region while Rajputs inclined to BJP.

With Singh joining Congress, the party dared Jat-Rajputs combinations that tested positively when results were out.

Out of 7 seats of Barmer district, Congress swept away 6 seats including Sheo, represented by Singh. Pachpadra, where BJP government restarted Refinery project, went into the kitty of Congress where Madan Prajapat has won.

The BJP bet its sitting MP Colonel Sonaram Choudhary in Barmer city who lost to Congress’s Mewaram Jain badly. BJP won only Siwana seat in Barmer by Hameer Singh. Congress national secretary and former Barmer MP Harish Choudhary has won from Baytoo. Congress has won two seats of Jaisalmer district- Jaisalmer city and Pokhran. 

Rathore Loses

• Out of six seats of Churu district, the Congress has won five seats. Congress’s Rafiq Mandelia has defeated the incumbent minister Rajendra Rathore. 
• Congress’ Olympian Krishna Punia defeated sitting BSP MLA Manoj Nyangli from Sadulpur. Abhinesh Mehrishi, who quit Congress and joined BJP, has won Ratangarh seat.