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Results will spring surprises: Gehlot

Special Correspondent

Photo: Special Arrangement

Enthusiastic voters: Residents of Nalda village in Banswara district outside a polling booth on Thursday.

JAIPUR: The scorching heat did not deter them as over 50 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise in Rajasthan in the one-day polling on Thursday for all 25 Lok Sabha seats from the State.

The tentative polling percentage almost matched the figures of the 2004 elections of 49.94 but fell much behind the polling of the recent Rajasthan Assembly elections, which stood at 66.34 per cent. Both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party did not change their earlier postures on their winning chances after the polling.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot thanked the people for their “cooperation” in the peaceful poll process amid the most adverse weather conditions. In a message here, Mr. Gehlot said his feedback indicated that the people of the State “voted in national interest supporting the policies and programmes of the Congress Party and the United Progressive Alliance Government”. He also said that the results would bring surprises in favour of the Congress.

Mr. Gehlot said throughout the campaign period he could see that the public was happy over the decisions taken by his Government during the very limited period it got before the Model Code of Conduct came into force. “I am grateful to the people for their cooperation and participation in the election despite the intense heat,” he said.

State BJP president Omprakash Mathur said the party was confident of winning more seats than the Congress. “In the post-poll scenario we maintain our earlier stand that the BJP would win more seats than the Congress. The polling percentage has been lower than expected but our votes have been cast,” he said.

Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who spearheaded the BJP campaign in the State, complained of “misuse of government machinery for elections by the Gehlot Government”. Talking to media persons in Jhalawar where her son Dushyant Singh is a candidate for the lok Sabha, Ms. Raje alleged that the Chief Minister had been exerting pressure on the Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police to influence the district level bureaucracy in favour of the Congress candidates. The administration was also harassing the BJP workers by picking them up from hotels and detaining them, she charged.

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