Rajasthan Politics Karanpur Election Result 2024: BJP, which registered a bumper victory in the Rajasthan assembly elections, has already suffered a major setback in the elections. Surendra Pal Singh, who became a minister in the government even before becoming a candidate in the assembly elections, has suffered a major defeat at the hands of Congress candidate Rupinder Singh in the assembly elections. With this defeat, the ministerial post of Surendra Pal Singh TT has also come in danger.
When assembly elections were held in Rajasthan in November 2023, elections were held only on 199 assembly seats out of total 200. Elections could not be held on Karanpur, a seat in Sriganganagar, because Gurmeet Singh Kunnar, the Congress MLA from here and the Congress candidate for the 2023 assembly elections, died suddenly. By then the notification for assembly elections had been issued and the election campaign had started.
Because of this, the Election Commission postponed the elections on that seat. A fresh date for the elections was decided by the Election Commission. Then on January 5, 2024, Rupinder Singh, son of late Congress MLA Gurmeet Singh Kunnar, was made the Congress candidate in this election.
Why did Congress object?
Meanwhile, results of 199 seats were declared, in which BJP alone won 115 seats. Congress got only 69 seats. After this bumper victory, on December 15, BJP made Bhajanlal Sharma the Chief Minister. Bhajanlal Sharma expanded his cabinet and made a leader who was not even an MLA a minister. His name was Surendrapal Singh TT.
Now Surendra Pal Singh TT needed to become an MLA to remain a minister. It was necessary for Pal to win the election from any seat in Rajasthan within six months, because there is no Legislative Council in Rajasthan. In such a situation, when elections were to be held on Karanpur Assembly seat, BJP made Surendrapal Singh its candidate from there so that he could win and remain on the post of minister.
Congress also raised objection on this and said that till date it has not happened in history that a minister has been made first and later the minister has been made a candidate in the assembly elections. Congress also called it a violation of the code of conduct, but BJP did not change its candidate.
Why is it a shock for BJP?
In such a situation, voting took place on 5th January. More than 81 percent voting took place. Then, in the results that came on January 8, it was revealed that in the assembly elections in which BJP had fielded its minister Surendra Pal Singh TT, the minister had lost the election to Congress candidate Rupinder Singh by 12 thousand votes. In such a situation, Surendra Pal Singh TT, who became minister just 10 days ago, will now either have to win the election from another assembly seat or after six months have passed, he will have to resign from his ministerial post.
However, as big as this blow is for Surendra Pal Singh, it is an even bigger blow for BJP, because after the formation of the government, this was the first major election in which the credibility of the party was at stake and the big defeat raised questions on the credibility of BJP.
These questions are also big because Lok Sabha elections are to be held in a few months. And in Rajasthan, BJP faces the challenge of repeating its performance, because in two consecutive Lok Sabha elections, BJP has left nothing for Congress and has won 25 out of 25 seats.
In such a situation, this defeat in the Assembly will continue to hurt the BJP until the BJP improves its performance in the Lok Sabha elections. Because this defeat has given an opportunity to Congress, from former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to Congress State President Govind Singh Dotasara, they have not missed the opportunity to attack and have said that the government can make ministers, but not MLAs. This is correct. The government made Surendra Pal Singh TT a minister, but the public did not make him an MLA.
