Independents garner 1.1% more votes than 2013 polls

JAIPUR:

Independent

candidates, including BJP and Congress rebels, have garnered a sizeable chunk of votes from different constituencies.

There were 830 candidates in the fray, including 775 men and 55 women. Out of those, 13 independent candidates won the election, while 10 finished at second position. In 2018 elections, independent candidates secured 9.5% of total votes polled, 1.1% more than 2013 assembly elections. The vote share of independent candidates was 8.4% in 2013.

A close contest was anticipated at Vidhyadhar Nagar constituency. In the direct fight of BJP candidate

Narpat Singh Rajvi

and Congress candidate Sitaram Agarwal, independent candidate and Congress rebel Vikram Singh made it a triangular battle bagging 50,382 votes. Rajvi posted a comprehensive victory by a margin of 31,232 votes.

In a close fight between BJP candidate Shankar Singh Rawat and Congress candidate Parasmal Jain, which was won by BJP by a margin of 4,502 votes, independent candidate Devendra Singh Chouhan garnered 18,674 votes.

In Nawalgarh, where Congress candidate Rajkumar Sharma defeated BJP candidate Ravi Saini, an independent candidate collected 38,965 votes.

In Bansur constituency, independent candidate Devi Singh Shekhawat showed his might to Congress candidate Shakuntala Rawat by collecting 47,736 votes. Though Congress won the contest, BJP finished at third place.

However, in Behror, independent candidate Baljeet Yadav won the battle against Congress candidate Dr RC Yadav. Yadav won by collecting 33.9% of votes. BJP remained at third place with 23.2% of vote share.

Independent candidate Dalveer Singh got 23,941 votes which were 13.4% of total votes polled at Bharatpur constituency. However, RLD candidate Dr Subhash Garg won the election by defeating BJP candidate Vijay Bansal by 15,710 votes.

The might of independent candidates can be gauged from the fact that they have won from 13 constituencies. Among the independent candidates, there were rebels from Congress and the BJP.

Contesting as an independent candidate from

Mandalgarh

, Gopal Malviya received massive support from voters. He got 42,163 votes, which was 23.1% of total votes polled. However, Gopal Lal Sharma, BJP candidate, defeated Congress candidate Vivek Dhakar by 10,333 votes with 37.5% of total votes polled in his favour.