E-Paper
Rajasthan elections: Land of state’s first Dalit CM marred by poor roads
Since independence, the Congress won the constituency in eight assembly polls while the Bharatiya Janata Party bagged it four times.
Bharatpur’s Weir is the constituency that gave the state’s first Dalit chief minister, Jagannath Pahadia, in 1980. At the heart of Bharatpur district, Weir, a constituency reserved for scheduled castes, is also famous for its pickle production.
The constituency with 258 polling stations comprises 270,938 voters, of which 145,017 are men and 131,204 women. Nearly 13,684 fresh voters from Weir are also all set to cast their votes in the upcoming state assembly election due on November 25.
Being a reserved seat for the SC communities, Weir has a majority of 63,000 Jatavs followed by a few backward classes backward category, such as 60,000 Jats and 31,000 Gurjars.
Since independence, the Congress won the constituency in eight assembly polls while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bagged it four times.
Former CM Pahadia, who held the post from June 1980 to July 1981, later also won the Weir battle twice in 1985 and 2003. His wife Shanti Pahadia also became an MLA from the constituency in 1998. His son Om Prakash Pahadia, who has recently joined the BJP this June, also contested from the seat with a Congress ticket in 2013 but lost to BJP’s Bahadur Singh Koli.
The incumbent Congress MLA and PWD minister Bhajan Lal Jatav first became the MLA from Weir in a 2014 in a by-election defeating BJP’s Gangaram Koli when Bahadur Singh was later fielded in the Lok Sabha election by BJP.
Jatav maintained his victory over the seat in 2018 as the BJP opponent Ramswaroop Koli lost to him by 10% votes.
A battle between Bhajan Lal Jatav and Bahadur Koli is expected to be witnessed in the upcoming elections as both parties again showed confidence in their respective candidates.
Despite being such an old constituency served by a minister, many areas of Weir are yet waiting for some basic facilities, such as developed roads, regular supply of drinking water, and a few colleges.
A long-time resident of the constituency, Annu Sinsinwar, said, “Jatav was supported by the majority in the constituency twice. But he failed to provide the villages with better roads. Damaged and underdeveloped roads in those areas put people’s lives at risk every time they commute by any vehicle. No action has been taken from the MLA so far.”
Another resident Saurabh Singh acknowledged having developed roads in his area but complained about a severe water shortage. “We have approached the minister several times to ensure a regular water supply system to our place. But we were refused every time.”
He also said that no students go to the new colleges established in the area due to a lack of infrastructure and insufficient staff.
Alleging caste bias in the development of the constituency, the former Weir MLA and the present BJP candidate Bahadur Koli said, “Despite being the PWD minister, Jatav’s tenure only provided the constituency with some poorly constructed roads that got damaged within ten days of its construction. He ensured development in the places that only belong to his own caste.”
He also said: “The only reason for such poor condition of the constituency is the minister got involved in corruption.”
However, commenting on the development of the constituency, MLA Jatav said, “All the pending development works of the earlier government were finished during my tenure. Bureaucrats used to deny working in the area considering its backwardness, but now the officials across the department seem to be willing to work in Weir. We have set up a number of colleges and English medium schools for better education.”
He said, “People in the constituency are happy with the developments during the Congress government. All the state highways were expanded to a width of 10 metres. To ensure easy access to the medical facilities, many primary and community health centres were also set up in the last five years.”
