2018 Rajasthan Assembly Election Dec 07,2018

The incumbent BJP government of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is looking to break a 20-year-old tradition in state’s politics, in which no party has won successive polls, opposition Congress will hope for a repeat of that tradition.

Since 1998, the Congress and the BJP have won Vidhan Sabha elections alternately, neither able to retain power for consecutive terms.

After winning 163 seats in 2013 Assembly polls — the highest in Rajasthan’s election history — the BJP has suffered a string of losses in by-elections in the state in recent times.

After the defeats, BJP initiated some damage-control measures, including changing its state unit president and re-inducting MLA Kirodi Lal Meena to the party along with two other legislators of National People’s Party (NPP). Meena was later elected to the Rajya Sabha on a BJP ticket. Meena, known to exercise considerable influence among the large Scheduled Tribe communities in eastern Rajasthan, had left the BJP in 2008 and won in 2013 as an NPP candidate.

The Congress, meanwhile, launched the “mera booth, mera gaurav (my booth, my pride)” programme shortly after the bypoll victories, aiming to mobilise booth-level workers in districts.