Lok Sabha elections 2019: All eyes on sons in the fray in Rajasthan on April 29
In the last general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan and in the 2018 November-December assembly poll the Congress bagged 100 out of the 200 state seats and BJP 73.
The Congress and BJP are going to face each other again Rajasthan in the Lok Sabha election after the grand old party came back to power following a tight contest in last year’s assembly polls in one of the key states in the Hindi heartland.
In the last general election, the Bharatiya Janata Party won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan and in the 2018 November-December assembly poll the Congress bagged 100 out of the 200 state seats and BJP 73.
The ruling party in the state is looking to ride on the assembly poll win to better its tally in the national election this time. And, the BJP hopes to buck the trend that the party which wins the assembly election gets a majority of the Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan.
Also read: BJP, Congress try to strike caste balance in Rajasthan
The BJP is contesting the Lok Sabha election 2019 in alliance with the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) led by Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal. The RLP won the Khinvsar, Merta and Bhopalgarh seats in the assembly elections last year.
Congress is going to contest all the 25 seats in the forthcoming election on its own. In the assembly election 2018, it had allied with Rashtriya Lok Dal led by Ajit Singh, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Sharad Yadav’s Loktantrik Janata Dal.
As 13 of the desert state’s 25 parliamentary constituencies go to polls on April 29, the national parties are going to face a tough competition once again.
Also read: Can BJP reverse 2018 election losses in Rajasthan?
While the BJP has used the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the issues of nationalism and national security as poll planks this year, the Congress has raised local issues and is banking on its minimum income scheme Nunyatam Aay Yojna (Nyay), which guarantees Rs 72,000 to the 20% of the country’s poorest people annually, a separate budget for farmers and addressing unemployment.
On Monday, more than 2.5 million voters will decide the fate of the 115 candidates in the fray in these Lok Sabha seats at 28,182 polling centres. These constituencies are Tonk-Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Pali, Jodhpur, Barmer, Jalore, Udaipur, Banswara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand, Bhilwara, Kota and Jhalawar-Baran.
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Eight candidates are contesting from the Tonk-Sawai Madhopur Lok Sabha seat, seven from Ajmer, eight from Pali, ten each from Jodhpur, Chittorgarh and Rajsamand, seven from Barmer, 15 each from Jalore and Kota, nine from Udaipur, five from Banswara, four from Bhilwara, and seven from Jhalawar-Baran.
Of these 13 parliamentary constituencies, the most keenly watched seats are Barmer, Jodhpur and Rajsamand.
Political analyst Narayan Bareth said the BJP and Congress both have been campaigning aggressively in the state. “The BJP has tried to conduct the canvassing in this Lok Sabha election in form of the presidential election in the US,” Bareth said.
“It is campaigning on three issues: Candidate is immaterial and only Narendra Modi is relevant; the Congress has done nothing in the last 70 years and nationalism. Congress is stuck between traditional and modern ways of campaigning. At few places, the Congress is luring voters through traditional way, while at some places, it is luring through modern manner,” he said.
Also read: Will Manvendra Singh repeat his 2004 Barmer Lok Sabha victory for Congress in 2019?
Bareth said it is a tough contest in Jodhpur. “People of the Jodhpur parliamentary constituency have to choose from two choices... They have to vote either looking to the works and connectivity of chief minister Ashok Gehlot or Modi’s larger than life image,” he said.
The Congress has fielded the son of the BJP’s founder member and former Union minister Jaswant Singh, Manvendra Singh, in Barmer, which is dominated by Jats. Manvendra was the sitting MLA from the Sheo assembly constituency in Barmer district and prior to the assembly elections, he joined the Congress.
He was fielded as the Congress candidate from Jhalarapatan assembly constituency, the home turf of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, and lost. Manvendra is contesting against the BJP’s former MLA from Baytoo Kailash Choudhary.
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The Jodhpur Lok Sabha seat has become a battle of prestige between the two parties with chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav Gehlot pitted against Union minister and sitting MP Gajendra Shekhawat. In fact, Ashok Gehlot had first reached out to Jat leader Beniwal for a tie-up in a bid to secure the community’s votes for Vaibhav
The member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur and former MLA from Sawai Madhopur Diya Kumari has been fielded from the Rajput-dominated seat of Rajsamand by the BJP, while Congress has nominated Devkinandan (Kaka).
Also read: BJP’s Diya Kumari banking on Modi wave in Rajsamand seat
The votes will be counted on May 23 and the results are expected on the same day.