Rajasthan minister and Congress leader Pratap Singh Khachariyawas exuded confidence on Sunday and said that the grand old party will sweep victory from the Civil Lines Assembly constituency and will also form the government in the state.
Speaking to ANI about the Rajasthan Assembly Elections, he said, “We will win Civil Lines with a huge margin, more than the number of votes we got last time. I think the silent voter also voted for me. The Congress will form the government in Rajasthan.”
“We gave the slogan for winning 156 seats. Time will tell how many seats we will get,” the Congress leader added.
This Civil Lines constituency is set for a direct contest between sitting MLA Pratap Singh Khachariyawas of Congress, a cabinet minister, and his rival Gopal Sharma of the BJP, a new face fielded by the BJP party.
Civil Lines is considered a stronghold for Khachariyawas, who has received a Congress ticket for the fourth time.
He beat Arun Chaturvedi of the BJP in the 2018 polls by a margin of 18,078 votes. Chaturvedi, who had won the seat in the 2013 polls, was sidelined by the BJP this time as the party nominated Gopal Sharma, a senior journalist.
This had led Sharma to face opposition from Chaturvedi in the days after the BJP announced the names of its candidates.
Earlier on November 4, Khachariyawas filed his nomination for the November 25 Assembly polls. The Congress leader had filed his nomination for the Civil Lines Assembly constituency.
In the 2018 Assembly elections, Khachariyawas registered victory from the Civil Lines constituency by garnering 53.53 per cent of the vote share against BJP candidate Arun Chaturvedi, who received 69,859 votes.
As the polling for the Rajasthan Assembly elections concluded on Saturday, over 70 per cent voter turnout was recorded with stray incidents of violence.
In Rajasthan, 199 out of 200 seats went to the polls as, due to the death of a Congress candidate in Sriganganagar’s Karanpur seat, Gurmeet Singh Koonar the election in this constituency was adjourned.
The state recorded 9.77 per cent voter turnout at 9.30 am, but it picked up pace by 6 pm.
A total of 68.24 per cent electorates cast their votes till 5 pm, the Election Commission informed.
Polls were held in Rajasthan on November 25 and counting of votes will be done on December 3.
In 2018, the Congress won 99 seats, while the BJP won 73. Gehlot assumed the CM position with the support of BSP MLAs and independents. (ANI)
