The desert State of Rajasthan will go to polls on November 25 to elect members of a new Assembly after a high-pitched campaign which witnessed acrimonious debates and accusations, as well as promises and guarantees. Defending its citadel, the ruling Congress expects to change the trend of the incumbent government being voted out during the last three decades.
Over 5.25 crore voters will seal the fate of 1,862 candidates in the electronic voting machines in 199 of the 200 constituencies, where the polling will be held. Election in Sriganganagar’s Karanpur has been postponed because of the death of Congress candidate and sitting MLA Gurmeet Singh Kooner.
The Congress has fielded 97 sitting MLAs, including seven Independents and one from the BJP, while the Opposition BJP has given tickets to six Lok Sabha members and one Rajya Sabha member as well as 59 MLAs. The BJP’s decision to field defected Congress MLA Girraj Malinga generated a controversy because of his alleged involvement in the attack on a Dalit engineer.
Over 40 rebels of both the Congress and the BJP are in the fray, as they were dissatisfied with the refusal of tickets despite their claims. Nagaur MP and Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) convener Hanuman Beniwal is contesting from Khinvsar. The BJP has fielded candidates on all seats, while the Congress has left one seat, Bharatpur, for its ally Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD).
Other parties contesting the election are Aam Aadmi Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Bharatiya Tribal Party, Bharat Adivasi Party and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen.
The BJP’s election campaign was dominated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who addressed a large number of rallies covering the politically significant regions, and targeted the Congress over corruption, increasing crimes, question paper leaks, and appeasement. Mr. Modi’s allegation that Congress sympathised with terrorists created a consternation in the ruling party’s camp and drew sharp reaction from Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.
Mr. Modi made a strategic move towards the end of the election campaign and invoked the legacy of Congress leader from the Gujjar community, the late Rajesh Pilot, to claim that his son Sachin Pilot had been discarded just like his father. The Congress has countered the argument by accusing Mr. Modi of trying to provoke Gujjars who had shifted their combined support from the BJP to the ruling party in the 2018 Assembly election.
While the BJP has not projected any leader as its Chief Ministerial face, Mr. Pilot, who was earlier sidelined following his rebellion in 2020, has made a comeback on the Congress’s posters of poll guarantees. On Friday, Mr. Gehlot sprang a surprise by posting a video on social media platforms in which Mr. Pilot was making an appeal to the people to vote for Congress.
Mr. Pilot, who was engaged in a power tussle with Mr. Gehlot, has already reacted to Mr. Modi’s barb, saying there was no need for anyone other than his party members and the people to worry about him. In the video posted by Mr. Gehlot, the former Deputy CM said the feedback and response received from the public as well as the inclination of voters had clearly shown that the Congress was going to form the government again in the State.
In addition to the promise for conducting a caste census if elected to power, followed by reservation in proportion to population, the Congress has given seven guarantees to the voters. The party’s election manifesto, released on November 21, also made a promise for doubling of the amount for beneficiaries under the Chiranjeevi health insurance scheme from ₹25 lakh to ₹50 lakh annually and the enactment of a law for ensuring minimum support prices (MSP) to farmers.
The Assembly seats where the stakes are high include Mr. Gehlot’s home constituency Sardarpura, former CM Vasundhara Raje’s constituency Jhalrapatan, Mr. Pilot’s seat Tonk, and Pradesh Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra’s traditional constituency Lachhmangarh. Other important seats are Taranagar, where Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore is contesting, and Kota North, where Mr. Gehlot’s confidant and Minister Shanti Dhariwal is pitted against Ms. Raje’s loyalist Prahlad Gunjal.
According to the State’s Chief Electoral Officer, polling stations have been set up at a total of 36,101 places and security arrangements tightened, with more than 2.40 lakh personnel of the State police and the Central paramilitary forces deployed across Rajasthan.
