Jaipur -- The Congress retained the tribal-dominated Dungarpur assembly seat in Rajasthan defeating the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by a margin of 9,879 votes.

Congress candidate Punjilal Parmar defetated BJP's Suramal Parmar in the scheduled tribes reserved seat. Punjilal polled over 49,000 votes while Suramal got around 39,000 votes, election officials here said.

The by-polls were held due to the sudden death of the sitting Congress MLA Naturam Ahari.

The Congress has never lost an election from here. However, the BJP had made an all-out effort to wrest the seat. The importance the BJP gave to the seat could be gauged from the fact that Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje herself visited the constituency three times and the entire state cabinet had virtually shifted its base to the area.

The Congress too left no stone unturned to woo the electorate with all the senior leaders visiting the constituency and drawing the people's attention to the failures of the state government.

"The victory of the Congress indicates that the people have started losing faith in the BJP government and its policies," B.D. Kalla, state Congress president said.

He said the victory proved that the farmers and tribals were now inclined for a change. BJP state president Mahesh Sharma said the seat traditionally belonged to the Congress and the party honours the people's verdict.

The by-election was held on Monday.