Jaipur: Opposition Congress on Tuesday took an early lead in the Rajasthan, with the party ahead in 52 seats while the ruling BJP was behind with 39 seats, according to the latest trends available for the Assembly results.
Independents were leading at seven seats while others were leading at three, according to the trends.
In the state, 200 Assembly seats are at stake.
Among the prominent contestants, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was leading by 6532 votes in Jhalrapatan constituency, Congress leader Sachin Pilot was leading by 2007 votes in Tonk constituency and Ashok Gehlot was leading by 5112 votes in Sardarpura constituency.
Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria was trailing by 330 votes in Udaipur.
Before the counting began, Raje offered prayers at the Tripura Sundari Temple in Udaipur. Raje, who also served as the chief minister from 2003 to 2008, is looking at retaining power in the state for the third consecutive time.
Congress members, in a show of confidence, have brought firecrackers to their Jaipur party office. They also celebrated outside state party president Sachin Pilot’s residence in Jaipur as he is leading from Tonk constituency, as per early figures.
The Election Commission of India had set up as many as 52,000 polling booths, including at least one all- women booth in each constituency of the state for the smooth and peaceful voting experience. A total of 2,274 candidates including 187 women were in the fray for 199 Assembly seats.The tenure of Rajasthan assembly will end on January 20, 2019.
Along with Rajasthan, the results of the other four states Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram will also be announced today.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]