Raje's biggest critic wins with the highest margin

The only political development that would not go down well with Bharatiya Janata Party's chief ministerial candidate Vasundhara Raje on Sunday would be party leader and critic Ghanshyam Tiwari victory by a record margin. 

Tiwari has been criticising of Raje's candidature for the CM post for some time.

The 65-year-old leader with a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh background won his Sanganer seat with a margin of 65,350 votes. It was the maximum margin by anyone in these assembly polls.

Tiwari, who got 112,465 votes defeated the Congress’ Sanjay Bapna who could only secure 47,115 votes. The stalwart was among the nine candidates who got over a lakh votes.

His margin of votes was also more than Raje, who won by 60,896 votes from the Jhalarapatan seat.

In the last assembly polls, Tiwari was the leader of the opposition, and this would be his sixth term as a legislator. In the earlier BJP government led by Raje, he was the education minister.

Political observers say that the Tiwari gets strong community backing and the support of RSS leaders.

However, when Raje was given full command of Rajasthan, he had openly criticised the party’s decision. The leader remained sidelined and did not participate in Raje’s Suraj Sankalp Yatra. He only became active when he got the ticket for the Sanganer constituency.

“Because of factionalism in the BJP, he was sidelined. But due to his personal image, he has been successful in winning with the maximum margin,” said senior journalist Vijay Bhandari.

After his record win, sources said, the RSS might seek a good portfolio for him.

Raje who is likely to be elected as the leader of legislators on Monday, will take oath as the chief minister of Rajasthan on December 13, said party sources.

And it would be interesting to watch whether Raje offers an important cabinet position to Tiwari. Tiwari could not be contacted as he was attending a meeting of the legislators.