Sheo (Rajasthan): Ravindra Singh Bhati, a BJP rebel, won from the Sheo constituency by 3,950 votes. Bhati polled 79,495 votes.
Ravindra Singh Bhati is a student leader and is very popular among the youth community. Another independent candidate Fateh Khan, who bagged 75, 545 votes, stood in the second position. Congress candidate and MLA, Ameen Khan and BJP's Swaroop Singh Khara finished at the third and fourth positions respectively.
Bhati had won the university students' union election and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party. But after the party fielded Khara from the Sheo constituency, Bhati left the saffron party and contested as an independent candidate. His election rallies used to draw huge crowds due to his popularity.
This time, Sheo witnessed a four-cornered battle, which included two independents, BJP and Congress. The seat was won by Ameen Khan of Congress in 2018 Assembly polls by a margin of over 84,000 votes.
Rajasthan, which has a tradition of electing independents, has seven such candidates who are leading in their respective constituencies in the state. Apart from Bhati, six other leading independents are Ganeshraj Bansal from Hanumangarh (88356 votes), Ritu Banawat from Bayana (98564 votes), Yoonus Khan from Deedwana (66400 votes), Jiva Ram Choudhary from Sanchore (83718 votes) and Ashok Kumar Kothari from Bhilwara (68104 votes).
The highest number of 28 independent candidates were elected in 1993 Rajasthan Assembly elections. After which, in 1998 there were 14 elected independents, in 2003 there were 24, in 2008 there were 26, in 2013 there were 16 and in 2018 there were 27. Meanwhile, the BJP is set to form government in the state after it trounced Congress.
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