Not allying with Cong cost RLP, BAP Khinvsar & Salumber seats

Jaipur: A look at the results of the bypolls in Khinvsar and Salumber assembly constituencies makes it clear that a pre-poll INDIA alliance for these two seats might have led to a different outcome. In Lok Sabha polls earlier this year, both Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) were part of the Congress-led INDIA bloc. The victories of RLP chief Hanuman Beniwal and BAP's Rajkumar Roat in Nagaur and Banswara LS constituencies respectively were rightfully attributed to the two small parties' alliance with the INDIA bloc.In the bypoll in Khinvsar, a seat held by Beniwal's family since 2008, BJP's Revant Ram Danga defeated RLP's Kanika Beniwal, wife of the Nagaur MP, by nearly 14,000 votes. Congress candidate Ratan Chaudhary secured over 5,400 votes. In addition, if Congress had given the ticket to Rajput leader Durg Singh, who also had Beniwal's backing this time, the results might have been different. In the 2023 assembly polls, Singh had secured 15,872 votes (7.5% vote share) here as an independent candidate. He switched to BJP from Congress ahead of the bypolls, helping the saffron party consolidate Rajput votes in its favour this time.In Salumber, where BJP's Shanta Meena defeated BAP's Jitesh Kumar Katara by just 1,285 votes, Congress candidate Reshma Meena secured 26,760 votes. The wafer-thin defeat margin prompted Banswara MP Rajkumar Roat of BAP to allege irregularities in the counting of votes."Irregularities were committed in the final two or three rounds of counting for Salumber seat in these bypolls. Our party candidate has now demanded a recount. BJP officials pressured the returning officer to proceed with the certification process," said Roat on X.To buttress his point, Roat added, "If there were no irregularities, why did not the returning officer conduct a recount? If a recount can happen in Dausa, why cannot it be done in Salumber? The people of Salumber have been deceived, and democracy has been undermined".Congress functionaries said if RLP and BAP had contested in Khinvsar and Salumber respectively in alliance, the INDIA bloc would have won both the seats. "The party (Congress) did not want to ally in these two seats to keep the cadre alive. An alliance in these two seats would have helped the two parties' (RLP and BAP) candidates win the bypolls. This would have demoralised our party's workers," said a senior Congress functionary.Another Congress functionary said it was the right decision for the party not to have allied with Beniwal's RLP.