Rajasthan Assembly poll tests BJP’s Hindutva against Gehlot’s ‘Chiranjeevi’
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 25: The economic parameters of Rajasthan are seen by analysts as average. The per capital income has grown from by around 35 per cent in the last three years in Rajasthan. The assured revenue from the state’s share of GST helped incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to stitch a basket of welfare schemes to make a formidable pro-people image. This is testing the collective might of the Bharatiya Janata Party which is baking heavily on Hindutva to counter Gehlot.
Rajasthan’s share of state GST in 2021-22 was Rs 27,502 crores. This has been budgeted at Rs 48,946 crores. This accounts for an almost 85 per cent growth within two years. The rapid growth in the GST share of Rajasthan in in line with the Centre’s collections which are at record high at Rs one lakh seventy two thousand.
Gehlot like several other chief ministers also holds the portfolio of finance. Thus, Gehlot is a finance minister of Rajasthan. With the advent of Team Rahul Gandhi with key aides such as former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh, Rajasthan was made a test case for experimenting the universal coverage of the welfare schemes.
Taking a leaf out of the Delhi Model of the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress turned focus on health in Rajasthan. The free health scheme for the people is noted by political observers as the mainstay of the Congress poll plank in Rajasthan. The Congress has promised to enhance the coverage from Rs 25 lakh per year to Rs 50 lakh in the party manifesto for the Assembly election. By enacting right to health, the Congress unveiled a formidable template against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-poor image. The economic analysts for months have been arguing that the people’s out of pocket expenses have been rising on the health expenses. In this backdrop, Gehlot gained a protective shield against the BJP’s politics of Hindutva for the Rajasthan Assembly election.
Also, Gehlot gave the highest enhancement in the budgetary allocation to the urban development with focus on the municipal expenses to emphasise on the civic issues. The budget allocation for health saw 10 per cent increase from last year. For education, the increase in the budget was nine per cent.
With Gehlot taking a protective shield of popular schemes, Modi led the BJP’s campaign with focus on law-and-order issue, beheading of Kanhaiya Lal Teli, corruption, cow-slaughter, examination paper leaks. The BJP’s Hindutva pitch was prepared by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath who brought to the forefront the issue of beheading of Kanhaiya Lal Teli who had supported Nupur Sharma on the social media for her alleged remarks against Prophet Mohammed.
The BJP is clearly counting on the appeal of Hindutva in Rajasthan which had given the power in the state in 1990, 1993, 1998, 2008, and 2013. The recent incidents of communal violence have sharpened the BJP’s Hindutva charge in the Assembly election as Modi led the allegations against Gehlot and the Congress for practising politics of appeasement.
With the Congress and the BJP locked in battle of welfarism versus Hindutva, the others in Rajasthan consisting of Hanuman Beniwal and the AAP are also making efforts to create space. Beniwal’s effort to make inroads in the Jat and Dalit vote base along with Chandrashekhar Azad Ravan is not yet assessed for impact in the Rajasthan Assembly election.
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