Zee News Rajasthan Maha exit poll: Jan ki baat predicts close fight, CNX gives Congress lead

The polling for the Rajasthan Assembly elections 2018 ended on Friday and the state witnessed brisk polling in the assembly elections.

Polling for 199 seats out of the total 200 in the assembly began at 8 am with voters lining up at 51,687 booths. The election in Ramgarh constituency of Alwar district was put off following the death of Bahujan Samaj Party candidate Laxman Singh.

The several exit poll predicted different results for the BJP and Congress in the state. According to Axis exit poll, the BJP will win 63 seats, Congress will win 130 seats and others will win 6 seats in the state. According to Jan ki Baat, BJP will win 93, Congress will win 91 and others will win 15 seats. As per CNX, BJP will win 85 seats, Congress 105 seats, BSP 2 seats and others will win 7 seats in the state.

According to C-Voter, the BJP will win 52-68 seats, Congress will win 129-145 seats and others will win 5-11 seats. As per CSDS, BJP will win 83 seats, Congress will win 101 seats and others will win 15 seats.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that the party is confident of victory in Rajasthan. The BJP leader recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the results in Rajasthan this time will change the usual tradition of any party not retaining the state in any Assembly elections.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who is the BJP's chief ministerial candidate, is fighting against veteran BJP leader Jaswant Singh's son Manvendra Singh in Jhalrapatan, the constituency she has represented since 2003.

Manvendra Singh switched to Congress just before the election, making the fight tougher for Raje this time. She had won 63 per cent of the votes cast in 2013, winning the seat by a margin of 60,896.

Tonk, with a sizeable Muslim population, is a keenly-watched contest between Sachin Pilot and BJP candidate and Rajasthan Transport Minister Yoonus Khan, who is the saffron party's only Muslim face in the elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had initially fielded sitting MLA Ajit Singh Mehta in Tonk. But in a change of strategy, the party dropped him and sent Khan to take on Pilot.

This is a maiden assembly election for Pilot, a two-time MP who is seen as a chief ministerial possibility if the Congress wins. He has represented Dausa and Ajmer Lok Sabha constituencies in the past.

In about 130 constituencies, the contest appears to be mainly between the BJP and the Congress. In the current House, the BJP has 160 seats and the Congress 25. 

The results for the state will be declared on December 11, along with those from the other four states which saw Assembly elections in the past few weeks.