CPI(M) Performance in Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018

Total votes received by the Party: 4, 32, 001 (1.2%)

Average votes for the 28 seats that we contested: 15, 428 votes

(In 2013, total votes secured by the Party were 2, 69, 002 (0.9%). We contested 38 seats and the average votes received were 7, 079 votes)

Balwan Punia

THE newly elected MLA from Bhadra is 40 years old and was the former Hanumangarh district president of SFI. The CPI(M) nominee, Balwan won by polling 81,655 votes which is 41.22 per cent of the total polled votes.  After leaving the college, he became active in the kisan movement and in 2005 got elected to the zilla parishad. Presently he is the president of Kisan Sabha of Hanumangarh district. Since the last one decade, he has actively been leading the kisan struggles in the district which has made him a popular leader of the region. These struggles include: irrigation facility from the canal water, loan waiver and settling the insurance claims of the farmers. In the recent period, Rs 270 crore was disbursed as insurance claim to the farmers of the region because of the struggles, which Balwan Punia was leading. In the last assembly elections, he stood second. He has faced brutal repression at the hands of the police during various kisan struggles.

Giridharilal  Mahiya

The newly elected CPI(M) MLA from Shree Dungargarh is also the Bikaner district president  of All India Kisan Sabha. He won the assembly seat by polling 72,376 votes, which is 41.4 per cent of the total polled votes. He was the vice president of Shree Dungargarh Panchayat from 1995-2000.  In 2006, he was elected as the member of the zilla parishad. Presently he is also the president of his panchayat and also president of the association of panchayat presidents of Bikaner district. He has led many kisan struggles in the region. The major struggles that have been led by him include opening of procurement centre for the purchase of groundnut, reducing the electricity bills and getting loan waiver for the farmers. Aged 60 years, he is identified as an astounding kisan leader of the region. He has faced repression many times by the police during the kisan struggles led by him.