Rajasthan Assembly Elections were held on November 25, with 199 of 200 seats up for grabs and vote counting slated for December 3. There are 25 reserved seats for Scheduled Castes, 34 for Scheduled Tribes, and 141 for the General category. There were around 5.3 crore voters eligible to vote. The current assembly's tenure expires in January 2024, and the election will be fought mostly by the BJP and the incumbent Congress led by Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. In 2018, the Congress won 99 seats, while the BJP took 73. Due to concerns about clashing social events, the Election Commission changed the initial November 23 date.
Now, the great question in the state's political circles is whether Raje, the party's tallest leader in the state, will be re-elected as Chief Minister. Before the election results were released, the 70-year-old Raje visited various temples, including the Mehandipur Balaji temple in Dausa and the Moti Doongari temple in Jaipur. Significantly, the BJP did not endorse any CM candidate during its Rajasthan election campaign, and Raje was not assigned the major role in driving it. The Congress party had hoped to retain power in the state, which is infamous for its three-decade-long history of expelling the ruling party, relying on the popularity of incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's government welfare plans. The BJP, on the other hand, relied on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's popularity to gain power. PM Modi denounced the ruling Congress, addressing concerns about peace and order in the state, especially the murder of Kanhaiya Lal, a tailor in Udaipur, and crimes against women.
