Jaipur, Dec 4 (IANS): Dejected over his defeat in Amer Assembly, BJP Deputy Leader of Opposition Satish Poonia on Monday announced that he will not contest elections from the constituency in future.

Taking to X , he said, "This happens to be a testing time for me. Circumstances have forced me to decide against contesting from Amer in future. Will also inform the party leadership about my decision and request them to appoint qualified persons to solve the problems of people here."

He went on to add, "In democracy, the public is sacrosanct. I accept the decision of the people of Amer. I congratulate the winning candidate of Congress, Prashant Sharma. I hope that he will continue to give the same pace to the development of Amer and will respect public sentiments.

"I have shared a strong bond with Amer for ten years. I came to contest elections in 2013 on the instructions of the party. I lost by just 329 votes. During the BJP government, we worked here by making development an issue. Although people say that it is a bit difficult for someone to think of development by rising above caste in the web of big castes. We tried in 2013-2018 and were a little successful. From development works to service works during Corona, efforts were made to create confidence among the people. Perhaps we failed to convince people" .

In elections, victory and defeat are two sides of a coin he said, adding that this defeat has forced him to introspect. "It's like a shock. We had dreamed that Amer would change its customs this time. Together, we will make this an ideal Assembly constituency by respecting the workers and doing excellent work for the people through the government. But this did not happen, this time is like a difficult test for me."

Even before the elections, Poonia wanted to change his Assembly seat and contest from Jhotwara and Sanganer instead.

But the central leadership reportedly did not allow him. Only Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore was given the freedom to change his seat.

This time Rathod had contested the elections from Taranagar Assembly instead of Churu Assembly. Despite this, he lost the election.