Rajasthan Rap: How Desert State Dealt 2nd Deadliest Blow to Congress in 30 Years in Terms of Vote Margin – News18

Continuing its pattern of being a swing state, Rajasthan yet again refused to give a second chance to any political party as it snatched power from the Congress and decided to elect the BJP in 2023. The state has been repeating this pattern since 1993 when Bhairon Singh Shekhawat became the chief minister, with BJP getting the highest number of seats.

This time, the vote margin that gave victory to the BJP was the second-highest since 1993. The BJP secured 1.65 crore votes while the Congress got 1.56 crore votes. The Congress lost with a margin of 90 lakh votes. In the last 30 years, since 1993, it was in 2013 when the BJP won with a margin of 37 lakh votes.

A swing state is one where power keeps oscillating between two parties after every alternate election and in Rajasthan, the parties are BJP and Congress.

The state elected BJP in 1993, 2003, 2013 and 2023. Congress was elected in 1998, 2008, and 2018.

In 2003, the winning margin for BJP was eight lakh votes and in 1993, it was just one lakh.

Between 1998 and 2018, the chief minister chair kept revolving between Ashok Gehlot, whenever Congress won, and Vasundhara Raje, whenever BJP swept the polls.

Third Deadliest Blow to Congress in Terms of Vote, Seat Share

The vote share of the Congress in 2023 stood at 39.53 per cent while that of BJP was 41.69 per cent. This was the third-highest vote share gap out of four times BJP has won in the state since 1993.

The highest vote and seat share gap was in 2013 when BJP won with 45.5 per cent votes and 163 seats. That year, Congress got only 21 seats and its vote share stood at 33.31 per cent.

Interestingly, no matter how low the seats won by these parties went, their vote share never went below 33 per cent. However, the lowest seats won by the BJP in the last 30 years also stood at 33 (in 1998) while for the Congress it is 21, won in 2013. The highest seats won by the Congress were 153 (in 1998) and for BJP it was 163 in 2013.

Even as the chair kept rotating between Raje and Gehlot since 1998, Congress leader Mohan Lal Sukhadia holds the tag of being the chief minister of the state for the longest. He served the chair for more than 16.5 years. Gehlot has held the chair for almost 15 years and Shekhawat for 10.5 years. Raje is at the fourth position and served the state for 10 years.