Battle for Bikaner: Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to contest against Congress' Govind Ram Meghwal

Bikaner, a city in the northwest of the state of Rajasthan, is one of the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies within the state.

Bikaner, a city in the northwest of Rajasthan, is one of the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies within the state. The constituency has remained as a BJP bastion since the year 2004 when the seat was won by actor Dharmendra.

In the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, the seat was won by Arjun Ram Meghwal, who went on to become a minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet. While the Congress struggled to secure victories in the general elections post-1999, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has consistently dominated this constituency from 2004 to 2019. Arjun Ram Meghwal, the current Member of Parliament from Bikaner, clinched victories in 2009, 2014, and 2019, solidifying Bikaner as a fortress for the BJP.

In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he secured 62.84% of the votes, defeating his Congress rival Shankar Pannu. Following this victory, in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he won for the third consecutive time with a margin of 2,64,081 votes, defeating Congress candidate and his cousin Madan Gopal Meghwal. The Congress Party has nominated Govind Ram Meghwal as its candidate to contest against the incumbent three-term MP from the BJP, Arjun Ram Meghwal, in the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Bikaner Lok Sabha constituency is set to go on polls in the first phase on April 19. Bypolls for 26 Assembly seats in the state will also be held alongside the Lok Sabha elections. Nearly 96.8 crore people are eligible to cast their votes in the upcoming general elections at over 12 lakh polling stations.

The 25 parliamentary constituencies of Rajasthan will go to the polls in two phases. In Phase 1 of polling in the state on April 19, which is also the opening phase of the seven-phased elections, voting will be conducted for 12 seats. The remaining 13 seats in the state will be contested in the second phase on April 26. (ANI)

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