As 26-year-old Ravindra Singh Bhati steps out of his convoy as it enters the Baldev Nagar area in Barmer, a strategically important district bordering Pakistan, a crowd of around 100 supporters prop him up on their shoulders and carry him to the ground for a public meeting. Mr. Bhati, an Independent candidate for the Barmer-Jaisalmer Lok Sabha constituency, began his speech by declaring that he was “not a politician” but a “brother and a son” who is contesting election.
Mr. Bhati, who began his political career as a student leader and became an MLA, all in the short span of four years, is now intent on representing Barmer-Jaisalmer, the second largest Lok Sabha constituency in the country in terms of geographical area. His political positioning has unnerved both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress given both the spectre of anti-incumbency and Mr. Bhati’s Rajput origins.
To ensure that he wins the Lok Sabha election, Mr. Bhati is encashing on both his Rajput identity as well as his liberal outlook to become a favourite of the ‘chattis biradari’ or 36 communities of Rajasthan, which includes Muslims. Mr. Bhati affably engages with his supporters, both old and new, who sport shirts with his election symbol - the apple - printed on them.
The son of a school teacher, Mr. Bhati started his political career in 2019 by becoming the first Independent student union leader of the Jai Narain Vyas University of Jodhpur, which is also the Alma mater of former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, as well as Union Ministers Ashwani Vaishnav and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Soon enough, the BJP approached him to join the party. But things fell apart after he was denied an Assembly ticket in the recently held Rajasthan State elections. Mr. Bhati decided to go as an Independent and won.
As with his Assembly election success, he was keen to get a ticket from the BJP for the Lok Sabha seat as well. But the party ultimately decided to go with its incumbent MP and Union Minister Kailash Choudhary.
“The fact is that the BJP never took me seriously. I kept telling the party that I can win but they keep asking me to work for the party for 20 years and then seek a ticket. Why should I waste my time when the country needs young MLAs and MPs now, who are aware of the issues of the ground,” Mr. Bhati tells The Hindu.
The BJP has accused Mr. Bhati for meeting anti-national elements during his recent London tour and also for money laundering to fund his election campaign in which he is using SUVs and even a helicopter. Mr. Bhati says that being in power both and at Centre and the State, the party is free to hold all sorts of inquiries on him. He asserts that if he is found guilty, he will quit politics.
In his rallies, Mr. Bhati avoids personal attacks on his opponents, and speaks only about what all he will do for the people of Barmer-Jaisalmer. He raises issues of public concerns, such as the Desert National Park (DNP) issue. Mr. Bhati alleges that the government, both at the Centre and in the State, have deprived the people of these two desert districts from the development in the name of DNP restrictions. He also speaks about water problem, unemployment, and poor roads in the area.
“Barmer is not visible from Delhi… To understand Barmer, one needs to be from this place and live here,” Mr. Bhati, who is being dubbed as ‘anti-national’ and ‘naïve’ by his opponents, said. His opponents allege that he has made the Lok Sabha contest a triangular fight in a constituency where of a total 22 lakh voters, five lakh hail from the Jat community, four lakh from the SC/ST community, with three lakh Rajputs and 2.7 lakh Muslims.
In the Assembly election, the BJP won five of the eight Assembly seats that fall in the Barmer Lok Sabha constituency, including Barmer-Jaisalmer. Two seats went to Independents, one of them won by Mr. Bhati, and the other to the Congress.
“He listen to us. He looks like us. He talks for us. What else you want from your leader,” 19-year-old Sanjay Singh, who participated in Mr. Bhati’s roadshow in Chohtan town of Barmer, asks. Mr. Singh called attention to the effect Mr. Bhati has had on the incumbent MP, who has allegedly been asking voters to “not punish Modiji” in the upcoming election.
“He [Kailash Choudhary] knows that he has done nothing for us,” Mr. Singh adds.
Ranveer Singh Sodha, a heavyweight Rajput leader who was previously with the BJP, says that Mr. Bhati has the unconditional support of the Rajput community as anger was simmering against the BJP since the party has sidelined Rajput leader Jaswant Singh, who had been an MP from Barmer, a decade ago.
“The BJP never took Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra seriously. The BJP has only chosen royal families to keep Rajput faces in party, like Vasundhara Raje, Dia Kumari, and Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore. But the party never thought of picking a Rajput from ground who knows our issues, like Bhati,” says Mr. Sodha.
Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh, while talking to The Hindu, said that he feels that Mr. Bhati is a “challenge” for every contestant in Barmer and that a “change” is what people always look for.
“He is young and energetic. In elections, changes always happen. We all look for change,” Mr. Singh, who is not campaigning citing health reasons, said.
Some in the political circles say this is a strategic move on Mr. Singh’s part, implicitly extending support to Mr. Bhati, a charge that Mr. Singh denies.
Former Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan and Rajput leader Narayan Singh Manaklao also joined Mr. Bhati in his nomination rally, showcasing the considerable support he has on the ground.
Mr. Choudhary, whose campaign witnessed support from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Rajasthan CM Bhajan Lal, feels that the hype being given to Mr. Bhati is “unnecessary”. He alleges that the crowd at Mr. Bhati’s rallies are composed of “outsiders” and that he is “over ambitious”.
Earlier, a Congress bastion, Barmer has been consistently won by the BJP since 2014. Amid the tussle between the BJP and Mr. Bhati, the Congress is seeing the same as an opportunity for a comeback.
“He is naïve but all he will do is to dent the BJP’s votes and hence pave a smooth way for the Congress,” Prahlad Ram Chaudhary, a Congress functionary who was distributing pamphlets in a roadshow of Ummeda Ram Beniwal, said.
