Congress wins Ramgarh by-election, tally goes up to 100 in Rajasthan Assembly

RAMGARH: The Congress on Thursday won the by-election in Rajasthan's Ramgrah Assembly seat by a margin of 12,228 votes. The Congress candidate Shafia Zubair Khan bagged a total of 83,311 votes to bag the seat while BJP's Sukhwant Singh got 71,083 votes to end as the runners-up.

Shafia took the lead from the first round and maintained it till the end to register a comfortable win. The seat was won by the BJP in the 2013 Assembly election. With the win in Ramgarh, the Congress now has 100 MLAs in the 200-member Assembly.

The voting was held on January 28 which witnessed a voter turnout of 79.12 per cent across 278 polling booths. The bypoll was necessitated following the death of BSP candidate Laxman Singh due to cardiac arrest ahead of December 7, 2018 Assembly elections.

There were a total of 20 rounds of counting with the postal ballots counted first followed by counting of votes polled on electronic voting machines.

A total of 20 candidates were in the fray from this seat but the main contest was between Congress’ Shafia Zubair Khan, BJP’s Sukhwant Singh and BSP’s Jagat Singh. 

Reacting to Congress' win, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot told ANI, "I'm happy that people took a well meditated step. They've taken right decision. I thank them&express my gratitude. They've given a message at a time when it was much needed. It'll encourage the party ahead of Lok Sabha election."

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot on #RamgarhByPoll result: I'm happy that people took a well meditated step. They've taken right decision. I thank them&express my gratitude. They've given a message at a time when it was much needed. It'll encourage the party ahead of Lok Sabha election. pic.twitter.com/TrZyJOOFvQ — ANI (@ANI) January 31, 2019

The win will help the Congress remain in a comfortable position in the state Assembly with the support of its alliance partner RLD, which has one MLA.

It is to be noted that Congress leaders have repeatedly maintained that the Ashok Gehlot-led government in the state has support from Independents, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Hanuman Beniwal's Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLTP).

In the December 7 Rajasthan Assembly elections, Congress finished as the single largest party winning 99 out of 200 seats. The BJP won 73 seats, BSP 6, RLPT 3, CPI (M) and BPT 2 each and independents managed to win on 13 seats. Ashok Gehlot was sworn in as the chief minister of the state.