Even as the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) attained national party status, its electoral performance in Rajasthan fell short of expectations. The party failed to garner even half the votes received by the NOTA (None of the Above) option. Despite significant efforts, including visits by prominent leaders such as Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, AAP’s prospects in the contested seats did not yield favourable results.
Both senior leaders of the party held a roadshow for Mahendra Manda in Neemkathana. It was believed that AAP would perform well in some seats. However, Mahendra Manda received only 3,123 votes. However, there is a bit of relief that AAP candidate Kailash from Thanagazi performed well and stayed in third place with 19,876 votes. Meanwhile, former BJP MLA Devendra Kataria, who contested AAP’s symbol from Dungarpur, could only secure 2,348 votes.
It is worth mentioning that NOTA received a total of 3,82,066 votes in Rajasthan. This is 0.96% of the total votes. While the Aam Aadmi Party received only 1,48,709 votes throughout the state, which is 0.38% of the total votes. In this way, AAP couldn’t even secure half the votes for NOTA.
The party’s treasurer Sanjay Biyani got 780 votes
On the other hand, the party was optimistic about the treasurer and private college administrator Sanjay Biyani that he would also get good votes. In this regard, he was made a candidate for the Vidhyadhar Nagar Assembly seat. In the counting, he received only 780 votes. While being a college administrator, Biyani had a good hold at the local level. However, this hold could not be translated into votes.
‘AAP’ had no team at the booth level
It is worth noting that after the victory in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party came to Rajasthan with great enthusiasm. However, state in-charge Vinay Mishra and state president Navin Paliwal could not strengthen the team. The situation was such that the party could not even find candidates for 200 assembly seats. When candidates were fielded, there were not enough workers to sit at the booth. However, looking at the election campaign and organization, the party cannot consider this defeat as unexpected.
After the BJP and Congress, RLP received 2.39% votes.
According to the figures released by the Election Department, this time the BJP received the most votes in the state. BJP obtained 41.69% of the total voting. This is 1 crore 65 lakh 24 thousand 787 votes. Meanwhile, the Congress party received 39.53%, i.e., 1 crore 56 lakh 67 thousand 947 votes. There is a difference of 8,56,840 votes between the BJP and Congress this time. Meanwhile, on the third number, the National Democratic Party got 2.39% votes. RLP received 9.46 lakh votes. While the Bahujan Samaj Party received 1.82%, i.e., about 7.21 lakh votes.
