New Raj minister trails as Cong candidate leads in Karanpur Assembly seat

Jaipur, Jan 8 (IANS) The counting of votes for the Karanpur Assembly seat in Rajasthan was underway on Monday and Congress candidate Rupinder Singh Koonar was leading with a margin of 2,442 votes over BJP's Surendra Pal Singh TT.

The counting started at 8 a.m in Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar Government PG College.

After six rounds, Rupinder Singh Koonar has secured 32,085 votes followed by BJP's Surendra Pal Singh TT at 29,643.

This seat has remained in the news due to the appointment of BJP candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT as a minister in the Bhajan Lal government. The result will decide whether TT will continue as minister or not. The eyes of the entire state are fixed on this election result. Counting of votes will be completed in 18 rounds.

TT has also been given four important departments in the government.

The Congress had filed a complaint with the Election Commission regarding violation of the code of conduct.

This is the first major test of the Bhajan Lal government after the BJP came to power.

The Karanpur Assembly constituency has 2, 40, 826 voters, including 1,25,850 men and 1,14,966 women, 180 service voters and 10 transgender voters. There was 74.40 per cent voting in the voting held here on January 5.

It needs to be mentioned that Congress candidate Gurmeet Singh Kunnar passed away and hence elections were cancelled here.