She may have been forced out as Rajasthan BJP Legislature Party leader, but Vasundhara Raje again showed the party she mattered in the state with her last-day campaigning credited with swinging the Todabhim seat, where the Gurjjars hold the key, the BJP’s way in the Assembly bypoll.

The Congress crawled to victory in the other Assembly seat, Salumber in Udaipur district, for which by-election was held on November 7.

An aide close to Raje called the Todabhim victory a win for her as she had not been even consulted in the distribution of tickets or election planning. “It is a reserved constituency and three Meena candidates were in the fray, so it was known that the Gurjjar community, with more than 25 per cent of the vote share, would swing the elections,” a senior leader said, adding that Raje’s last-minute tour across the constituency got the BJP the Gurjjar vote.

Basanti Meena from the Congress won from Salumber, a seat her husband Raghuveer Meena had

vacated to successfully contest the Lok Sabha elections in May. However, Meena’s victory margin over the BJP’s Amrut Lal was a mere 3,000 votes.

In Todabhim, the BJP’s Ramesh Chand upset Shiv Dayal Meena of the Congress by more than 8,000 votes. The by-election was necessitated after powerful Meena leader, Dr K L Meena, resigned after winning the Lok Sabha polls from Dausa.

BJP state president Arun Chaturvedi said the Todabhim result would galvanise the party. “Despite a Congress government in the state, we won the by-election.