Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Kooner on Monday defeated his Bhartiya Janata Party rival and cabinet minister Surenderpal Singh in the election for the Karanpur Assembly seat in Rajasthan.
Kooner garnered 94,950 votes while Singh got 83,667 votes.
Rajasthan went to polls on November 25 to elect its new Legislative Assembly, and the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged victorious by winning 115 out of 199 seats. However, voting on the Karanpur seat was postponed due to the death of Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kooner, who was Rupinder Kooner’s father.
Singh was inducted into the Rajasthan cabinet after the BJP’s victory, leading to allegations by the Congress that the saffron party had violated the model code of conduct. He has to get elected as an MLA within six months of him having taken oath as a minister.
Kooner expressed his gratitude to the people of Karanpur who voted for him. “Even central ministers had come for campaigning [but] people rejected them and made democracy win,” Kooner told reporters, according to PTI.
On Monday, Congress leader and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot congratulated Rupinder Singh Kooner on his win and said the victory was dedicated to Gurmeet Singh Kooner’s public service.
“The people of Sri Karanpur have defeated the pride of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” the post continued. “The public has taught a lesson to the BJP, which flouted the Model Code of Conduct by making its candidate a minister in the midst of the elections,” he further added.
Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra described the election result as a “tight slap to the BJP’s dictatorial and undemocratic policy”. He remarked: “When the constitutional institutions of the country forget their responsibilities, then justice is done in the court of the people.”
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