Jaipur, May 16 (IANS) The Congress party seemed headed to sweep Rajasthan with the party bagging two seats of the 25 so far and leading in another 18 constituencies by 1.30 p.m. Saturday.
In the 2004 elections, the Congress had managed to win only four seats.
The BJP, which had won 21 seats in 2004, was leading in four. Kirori Lal Meena, an independent, was ahead of his rival - another independent - Qummer Rubbani Chechi, a Gujjar from Jammu and Kashmir, in Dausa (reserved) constituency.
Congress candidate Tarachand Bhagora was declared elected from Banswara where he defeated the BJP's Hakaru Maida by over 199,000 votes. In Bhilwara, C.P. Joshi, state president of the Congress, was declared elected. He defeated his nearest rival, the sitting MP V.P. Singh of the BJP, by over 135,000 votes.
Prominent Congress candidates who were leading include Sachin Pilot, over his nearest rival Kiran Maheshwari of the BJP by over 74,000 votes in Ajmer; and Girija Vyas leading in Chittorgarh over her nearest rival - sitting MP Srichand Kriplani of the BJP - by over 57,000 votes. Two union ministers in the Manmohan Singh cabinet, Namonarain Meena and Seesh Ram Ola, were leading in their respective constituencies of Tonk-Sawai Madhopur and Jhunjhunu.
While Meena was ahead of K.S. Bainsla of the BJP by a slender margin of 472 votes, Ola had taken a comfortable lead of more than 65,000 votes over his nearest BJP rival Dasrath Singh Shekhawat.
In a major shock for the BJP, Manvendra Singh, son of former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh, was trailing behind Congress' Harsh Chaudhary by over 110,000 votes in Barmer. But in Jhalawar-Baran constituency, BJP candidate Dushyant Singh, son of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, was leading by over 23,000 votes.
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