Rajasthan CM’s son loses to Union minister Shekhawat in Jodhpur

Yash Goyal
Jaipur, May 23 

In a setback to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, his son Vaibhav Gehlot faced defeat in his maiden election from the Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat which was won by the BJP’s Gajendra Singh Shekhawat for a second consecutive time.

Shekhawat won the seat with a high margin of 2,74,440 votes.

It had become a prestige issue for Ashok Gehlot who tirelessly campaigned in the keenly watched constituency.

Ashok Gehlot, who became the chief minister of Rajasthan for third time in December 2018, has himself represented the Jodhpur seat in Lok Sabha for five times from 1980 to 1999.

The BJP in Rajasthan has won 7 out of 25 parliamentary seats whose results have been declared so far and is maintaining a huge lead on 18 seats with RLTP on one seat of Nagaur. 

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav was defeated on his home constituency of Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat by BJP’s Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by a margin of 2,74,440 votes.

Though Shekhawat had won the previous Lok Sabha poll by a huge margin of 4,10,051 which is cut by the influence of chief minister’s 40 block level rallies in Jodhpur city alone. 

Another key contestant of the Congress Manvendra Singh, who quit the BJP in 2018 on the eve of assembly polls and son of former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, was defeated by BJP’s Kailash Choudhary in the Barmer parliamentary seat.

Manvendra had also lost the assembly poll battle against Vasundhara Raje on Jhalwar seat.   

Making a new winning record, BJP’s sitting MP Subhash Chandra Beharia won the Bhilwara seat by defeating Congress’ Rampal Sharma by a margin of 6,12,000 votes.

BJP Devji Patel, sitting MP, defeated Congress candidate Ratan Devasi on Jalore seat by a margin of 2,61,110 votes.

In Tonk-Sawaimadhopur seat, sitting BJP MP Sukhbir Singh Jaunpuria defeated Congress NN Meena, former UPA minister, by a margin of 1,11,291 votes.

Bhagirath Choudhary of the BJP defeated Congress Riju Jhunjhunwala by margin of 4,16,424 votes in Ajmer parliamentary seat.

BJP's Ranjeeta Koli  won the Bharatpur seat by defeating Abhijit K Jatav by margin of 3,18,399 votes.    

Expressing his gratitude to party workers and showing confidence in Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said the Congress very honestly accepted the results with humility.

“Every Congressman has worked united under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi and contested the polls on party’s Jan Ghoshna Patra and taken the message and plans to the far flung areas,” Gehlot said. 

“For us, the country is supreme while for the BJP it is power which is important. Modi has violated MCC and contested the polls on religion, caste, defence forces and glory of soldiers,” the chief minister said. 

For the unity and solidarity of the nation, the Congress and its party workers would remain dedicated and honest, he said. 

Reacting on poll outcome, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje said the victory is going to be a historical one.

It is not just a wave, a hurricane or a tsunami but it is the “kamal of TsuNamo’ (wonder of Modi), she told reporters at the BJP office.