E-Paper
Lok Sabha elections 2019: Interesting contests in Jaipur Rural, Alwar as north, east Rajasthan vote on May 6
The May 6 election in Rajasthan will seal the fate of 134 candidates, including 16 women. There are 23 million voters in these parliamentary constituencies, who will cast their vote at more than 23,000 polling stations, including 5,187 centres in the urban areas.
Polling for 12 parliamentary constituencies in northern and eastern Rajasthan will be held on May 6, the fifth phase of the Lok Sabha election, in the last round of voting in the western state.
The two regions include the four constituencies reserved for members of the Scheduled Castes (SC). Polling for the 13 other seats was held on April 29. Counting of votes will be done on May 23.
The May 6 election in Rajasthan will seal the fate of 134 candidates, including 16 women. There are 23 million voters in these parliamentary constituencies, who will cast their vote at more than 23,000 polling stations, including 5,187 centres in the urban areas.
Read: Full coverage of Lok Sabha elelctions 2019
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had swept the state by winning all the 25 seats. The landslide victory was preceded by the party winning 163 seats in the assembly of 200 members.
After last year’s assembly election, the Congress looks strong in eastern Rajasthan where it won 20 out of 32 assembly segments under four parliamentary constituencies of Alwar, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur and Dausa.
The BJP won only three seats in this region, drawing a blank in Dausa and Bharatpur constituencies. This area, which borders Uttar Pradesh, is where the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) also has some influence. In 2018, BSP won five assembly seats in eastern Rajasthan.
Read: All you need to know about Rajasthan
For the May 6 election, the BJP has fielded 11 candidates, leaving Nagaur for its ally the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP). The Congress is contesting on all the 12 seats and the BSP on ten.
Political expert Narayan Bareth says the Congress is likely to win more seats in the May 6 phase than those which polled on April 29.
“The party is strong in the SC seats and may also spring a surprise in Jaipur Rural where the Jats are polarizing against Rathore,” he says.
The most interesting contests on May 6 in Rajasthan are in Jaipur Rural, Alwar and Nagaur.
Read: In Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu constituency, BJP drops lone woman MP
In Jaipur Rural, two Olympians – Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Krishna Poonia – are locked in a fight. In Nagaur, the contest is between Congress’ Jyoti Mirdha and
RLP candidate Hanuman Beniwal, who has the support of the BJP. Jyoti Mirdha is the granddaughter of veteran Jat leader of the area, Nathuram Mirdha.
Alwar is going to witness a contest between former raja Jitendra Singh and a sanyasi Balak Nath. The 35-year-old hermit is making his electoral debut against Singh, who has been a two-time MLA and an MP. It will be a triangular contest with the BSP fielding Imran Khan, a civil engineer and owner of a construction company in Bhiwadi, as its candidate.
In Dausa, it is a contest between two women: Congress’ Savita Meena and the BJP’s Jaskaur Meena.
The Congress is also strong in northern Rajasthan, which includes the Shekhawati region comprising Sikar, Jhunjhunu and Churu constituencies.
Read: All about Rajasthan’s Sikar Lok Sabha constituency
In Shekhawati, which was the epicentre of farmers’ protest led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2018, the Congress won 16 assembly segments out of 24 in the assembly election that year. The BJP won only five and three seats went to others. The ruling party at the Centre drew a blank in Sikar district.
The BJP’s sitting Member of Parliament and Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal is seeking re-election in Bikaner, taking on his cousin and Congress candidate Madan Gopal Meghwal. In Sikar, the Congress has fielded Subhash Maharia against the incumbent BJP MP Sumedhanand Saraswati.
Ganganagar and Bikaner in north Rajasthan and Bharatpur and Karauli-Dholpur in the east are reserved for SCs. Ganganagar and Hanumangarh district, which form the Ganganagar parliamentary constituency, have the highest Dalit population in the state. Dalits constitute more than 20% of the population of Bharatpur and Karauli districts.
