Rajasthan polls 2018: Some interesting facts from history

Jaipur, Oct 22: Two hundred Assembly seats in Rajasthan will go to elections on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11, along with those in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Telangana. Rajasthan is one of those few states in the country that still sees a stable two-party competition and the power changing hands every five years. Though the state had once been a bastion of the Congress, the BJP tasted success in this state for the first time in 1990 and he two parties have been in and out of power over the last 28 years, especially since the 1993 election.

In the 2013 Assembly election, the BJP had a sweeping victory by winning 163 out of 200 seats, while the Congress won just 21. The National People's Party won four seats while the BSP won three seats.

Here are some interesting facts about Assembly elections in Rajasthan:

• Rajasthan has gone to polls 14 times since 1952 when the first election was held and of these, the Congress has won nine times and the BJP four. The Janata Party formed government once (1977).
• The Congress had one-sided dominance in the state's politics till 1977 when it lost power for the first time and the Janata Party came to power, just as it had at the Centre. Bhairon Singh Sekhawat became Rajasthan's first non-Congress chief minister. He was also the state's first BJP chief minister who took office in 1990.
• The Congress returned to power in 1980 and continued till 1990 when the BJP came to power for the first time. However, President's Rule was imposed in the state in the wake of the Babri demolition in December 1992 and it continued for a year when Sekhawat returned to power. It is so far the only time that the BJP came to power in Rajasthan by winning two consecutive elections (1990 and 1993).

• In 1990, the BJP won 85 out of 200 seats while in 1993, its tally went up to 95.
• The two parties have come to power every five years since then. While Sekhawat served between 1993 and 1998, Ashok Gehlot was the chief minister between 1998 and 2003 and 2008 and 2013. Current Chief Miniser Vasundhara Raje served between 2003 and 2008 and then between 2013 and 2018. Can she match Sekhawat's feat of becoming chief minister for consecutive terms?

• The Congress succeeded to win 150-plus seats in the Assembly election for the first time in 1998 when Gehlot became the CM.
• The BJP's show of winning 163 seats in the 2013 edition has been the most emphatic in the state's history. In 2003, it came to power by winning 120 seats.