Rajasthan Polls 2023: Voting for the assembly elections in Rajasthan will be held on Saturday, for which all preparations have been completed. In political circles, this election of the state is being seen as a fight to change the government and customs. In the last few decades, traditionally the government in the state changes in every assembly election. Once Congress, once BJP. Apart from other things, BJP has big hopes from this tradition while the ruling Congress is hoping that this time this tradition will change and its government will be formed again. Voting is taking place on 199 out of 200 seats in the state where more than 5.25 crore voters will be able to cast their votes. The main contest in the state is believed to be between the ruling Congress and the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.
Congress BJP raised many issues
Congress and BJP campaigned vigorously in the fight to change the ‘rules and customs’ in the state, but the campaign came to a halt on Thursday. The ruling Congress focused its campaign on the work of the Ashok Gehlot government, its schemes and programs and promised to fulfill the seven guarantees given if the government is formed again. At the same time, BJP leaders in their campaign attacked the government on issues like crime against women, appeasement, corruption and paper leaks.
Voting will take place on 199 seats
There are total 200 assembly seats in Rajasthan. The election on Karanpur seat has been postponed due to the death of Congress candidate and sitting MLA Gurmeet Singh Kunnar. Officials said that 1862 candidates are in the fray for these 199 seats, where the number of voters is 5,25,38,105. These include 1,70,99,334 young voters in the age group of 18-30, which includes 22,61,008 new voters in the age group of 18-19. Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that voting will be held on Saturday from 7 am to 6 pm, for which all preparations have been completed.
The reputation of many veterans will be at stake.
The leaders who are trying their electoral luck this time too from the ruling Congress include Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Congress State President Govind Singh Dotasara, Assembly Speaker CP Joshi, Minister Shanti Dhariwal, BD Kalla, Bhanwar Singh Bhati, Saleh Mohammad, Mamta Bhupesh, Pratap Singh. Khachariyawas, Rajendra Yadav, Shakuntala Rawat, Uday Lal Anjana, Mahendrajit Singh Malviya and Ashok Chandna and former Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot. At the same time, the major candidates of BJP are former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore, Deputy Leader of Opposition Satish Poonia and MPs Diya Kumari, Rajyavardhan Rathore, Baba Balaknath and Kirori Lal Meena Maidan.
There will be competition between BJP and Congress
At the same time, BJP has given tickets to 59 sitting MLAs including Congress MLA Girraj Singh Malinga and six MPs and one Rajya Sabha member. The Congress has fielded 97 MLAs, including seven independent MLAs and one BJP MLA – Shobharani Kushwaha, who was expelled from the BJP last year. One of the prominent faces to join BJP from Congress is former MP Jyoti Mirdha, who is contesting the assembly elections from Nagaur. Nagaur MP and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party convenor Hanuman Beniwal is also contesting the assembly elections. This party has made an electoral alliance with Chandrashekhar Azad led Azad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram).
Will the rule or custom change?
BJP is contesting on all the seats, while the ruling Congress has left one seat Bharatpur for its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), like in the 2018 elections. Current RLD MLA Subhash Garg is contesting from Bharatpur seat. Apart from this, many parties including CPI(M), Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, Bharat Adivasi Party, Bharatiya Tribal Party, Aam Aadmi Party, AIMIM are also in the fray in the state. More than 40 rebels from both BJP and Congress are also in the fray. Talking about the current Assembly, at present Congress has 107 MLAs, BJP 70, RLP three, CPI(M) and Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) two each, Rashtriya Lok Dal has one MLA. Independent MLAs are 13 while two each. Seat (Udaipur and Karanpur) is vacant.
Election preparations completed
Officials have said that all preparations have been completed to conduct fair and free voting. Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that a total of 51,507 polling stations have been set up at 36,101 places in the state. Of these, a total of 10,501 polling stations have been created in urban areas and 41,006 in rural areas. He said that there will be live webcasting from a total of 26,393 polling stations. These polling centers will be monitored from the district level control room. 65,277 ballot units, 62,372 control units and 67,580 VVPAT machines (including reserve) will be used for voting across the state. He said that 6,287 ‘Micro Observers’ and 6247 Sector Officers have been appointed to conduct free, fair and peaceful assembly elections.
Similarly, 2,74,846 polling personnel will conduct the voting. 7960 women polling personnel will take command at women managed polling stations and 796 disabled polling personnel will take command at disabled managed polling stations. According to a police officer, more than 1,70,000 security personnel have been deployed to conduct the voting process smoothly and peacefully, which includes more than 70 thousand Rajasthan Police personnel, 18 thousand Rajasthan Home Guards, two thousand Rajasthan Border Home Guards, police personnel from other states ( 15 thousand Home Guards of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and 120 companies of RAC are included.