AAP & others may change equations in Rajasthan Assembly election
While Hanuman Beniwal hopes to get the AAP on his side for a third front alliance in the Rajasthan politics, the BJP and the Congress continue to keep fingers crossed on the impact of ‘others’ in the electoral fray. This is also because several rebels of the Congress and the BJP are contesting elections after they were denied tickets by their respective parties.
Rajasthan Assembly election
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 24: “Your sons and daughters can also become MLAs. Your sons and daughters can also become chairmen of the boards. Ye desh kisi ke baap ki zaagir nahi hai (this country is not a fiefdom of any),” said Bhagwant Mann in several public meetings on the campaign trail in Rajasthan.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) brought its poll plank of mainstreaming politics and providing opportunities to the people from non-political backgrounds to contest elections at the forefront in Rajasthan. The AAP also stuck to its poll mainstay to promise corruption free administration with focus on education and health. For AAP, the ‘Delhi Model’ brings supporters in other states as well.
Hanuman Beniwal was the lone non-BJP leader to win the Lok Sabha election in 2019 from Rajasthan when the state witnessed a maddening wave for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, giving the Bharatiya Janata Party 25 of the 26 Lok Sabha seats. Beniwal, who heads the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), was a BJP sympathiser all along until parliament enacted four contentious farm laws and he turned into an Opposition voice. The 51-year-old MP from Nagaur in Rajasthan is now more ambitious than ever.
The political observers note that Beniwal now wants a third option in Rajasthan to break the tradition of the direct contest between the BJP and the Congress. A three-term MLA in the state before he was elected as Lok Sabha MP, Beniwal is seeking to fill the void in the Jat leadership in Rajasthan. Political observers stress that Beniwal has over the years built his base in areas of Bikaner, which has 23 Assembly seats, Nagaur, Jaisalmer, Shekhawati, and Barmer to lay claim on followings in almost 100 Assembly seats in Rajasthan.
He struck an alliance with Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan to cash in on the Jat-Dalit social combination. While Ravan shot to the national limelight with his rebellious social campaigns in the western Uttar Pradesh, he failed to make political impact in the state in the last two elections. His appeal in Rajasthan is not convincingly known.
With the scheduled castes totalling an 18 per cent vote share in Rajasthan, the split in the vote base appears on the card. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) Mayawati also addressed a few rallies in Rajasthan. The BJP is also laying claims on the Dalit vote base by spotlighting the presence of the Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal during electioneering. Incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot counts on the support base of the Congress among the other backward castes and scheduled castes.
While Hanuman Beniwal hopes to get the AAP on his side for a third front alliance in the Rajasthan politics, the BJP and the Congress continue to keep fingers crossed on the impact of ‘others’ in the electoral fray. This is also because several rebels of the Congress and the BJP are contesting elections after they were denied tickets by their respective parties.
With the victory margin having been too narrow in the 2018 Assembly elections, about one per cent between the Congress and the BJP, the political observers are wondering which way the ‘others’ will cut the vote share of the two main rivals in the Rajasthan politics.
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