Congress may take leaf out of BJP’s poll playbook in Rajasthan
Congress workers in Rajasthan protested against Ravan post of Rahul Gandhi by the BJP
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, October 6: The Congress appears to have got poll ready for Rajasthan by brokering peace between the incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and rebellious Sachin Pilot. Close aids of the Gandhis have been camping in Rajasthan to oversee the poll preparations for the state Assembly elections.
The Congress is keeping a close watch on the BJP’s handling of the former state Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje. The party leaders claimed that the Congress stands to gain if Raje is not in the drivers’ seat of the saffron election vehicle in Rajasthan.
“For us, Rajasthan is too close to call case for the Assembly poll. We have hair-thin edge over the BJP as per our ground-based assessment. If Raje is on the sidelines, the Congress can count gains, and if not, then the party will have to take some tough decisions,” said a senior ranking functionary of the Congress, while speaking to The Raisina Hills over phone from Jaipur.
The Congress strategists are mulling the idea to drop a number of incumbent legislators against whom the party has gathered negative feedback. “Ideally, if we are able to deny tickets to about 40 of the sitting legislators, the Congress can spring far ahead in the competition against the BJP. The number may vary, but the prospects of denying tickets to contest Assembly elections to a number of the party MLAs is very much on the table,” added the Congress functionary.
The BJP has now normalized the practice of denying nominations to a large number of sitting legislators in the Assembly elections. The saffron outfit averages 30 per cent axing of the sitting legislators, with the party basing the decision on ground feedback collected on a regular basis beginning six months before the polls.
However, the legislators in the Congress ranks in Rajasthan are mostly loyal to Gehlot, and the chief minister is likely to stand with them as reward for their loyalty to his leadership. But the Congress insiders stated that Gehlot may not get the free hand in picking up the party candidates and he will have to accommodate the criteria decided by the party brass. Pilot, incidentally, lacked enough following among the sitting legislators of the Congress in Rajasthan, which was a factor that sobered his rebellion against the leadership of Gehlot. The Congress had registered a massive victory in the 2018 Assembly election in the state by winning 100 seats against the BJP’s tally of 73.
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