Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Dharmpal defeated Bahujan Samaj Party’s Manoj Ghumaria with 9,114 votes in Rajasthan’s Khetri constituency. Khetri witnessed a tough three-cornered fight between Dharmpal (BJP), BSP’s Manoj Ghumaria and Manisha (Congress). Dharmpal polled 70,597 votes while, Manoj Ghumaria came second with 61,483 votes. Congress candidate who came third has garnered 27,981 votes. Dharmpal, who lost in the previous elections by 957 votes, won this year with a huge majority.

The Rajasthan State recorded a voter turnout of 75.45%, in the Assembly Elections held across 199 of 200 Assembly Constituencies on November 25. The election for the remaining 1 seat has been adjourned. Khetri assembly constituency in Rajasthan comes under Jhunjhunun district.

In 2008 assembly elections, Congress’s Jitendra Singh had defeated BJP’s Dharmpal. Jitendra Singh was voted 33,639 votes and Dharmpal was voted 22,572 votes. Dharmpal lost by 11,067 votes. The Constituency had total 1,55,600 electors.

In 2013 assembly elections, BSP candidate Pooranmal Saini had defeated Jitendra Singh (Congress). Pooranmal was voted 42,432 votes and Jitendra was voted 34,582 votes. BJP”s Dataram came third with 25,227 votes then. The constituency had 1,31,502 voters and 12 candidates.

In 2018, Again Jitendra Singh (Congress) won with 57,153 votes. Dharmpal (BJP) stood second with 56,196 votes. This time, BSP came third with 35,166 votes. The total electors was 2,07,419 in 2018.

Overall, according to the latest reports, out of the total 199 seats, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is leading with 115 seats and Indian National Congress is in second with 69 seats. On the total seat tally, independents are currently at the third position. Along with Rajasthan, the Assembly elections were held in four other states including Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. The results of these four states have also been announced now.

(This story is part of a Timeline. internship project “Whom They Voted For: Celebrating The National Festival”. This internship project is being organised aimed at helping young minds understand the electoral process of the country.)