Jaipur: Facing the factionalism in the party, the Rajasthan Congress now has to face the challenge of a by-poll on one of its assembly seats. The election commission has declared the by-election on the Sardarshahar assembly seat that got vacant with the demise of Congress MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma last month.
Sardarshahar is known to be the bastion of Congress as the party has won 9 times out of the 15 elections held on this seat since 1952. Departed MLA Bhanwar Lal Sharma himself won 6 times from this seat.
Challenges before the Congress party
Now the Congress party has to face the challenge of retaining the seat and it becomes more crucial as the party is going through a political turmoil and deep-rooted factionalism. Besides this, CM Ashok Gehlot is busy with Gujarat elections as he is the senior election observer for the state.
The ruling Congress has fared quite well in all the by-polls held in the last four years. The party has won 5 out of 7 by-elections in this tenure. The opposition BJP could retain only one seat and lost 2 of its seats.
Now, this is the 8th by-election and it will be interesting to see how the Congress party retains the seat.
It is to mention here that the Rajasthan assembly has lost 6 of its sitting MLAs in the last four years due to Covid-19 and other health problems so the state is continuously facing the by-polls.
