Rajasthan will have no MPs in a decade, and the BJP aims to keep it that way

This time the BJP appears to be in the driver’s seat again.

Jaipur:

In the last two assembly elections, the Congress did not win a single seat in Rajasthan – whether it was in power in the state or not. The BJP wants to keep it that way.

In 2014, the BJP won all 25 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state, when it was the ruling party in the state. In 2019, months after the Congress came to power in Jaipur, the BJP still won 24 seats, with the remaining Lok Sabha seats going to the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party.

Rajasthan will go to polls on April 19 and 26, the first two phases of the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP appears to be in the driver’s seat again this time, especially after sweeping the assembly polls a few months ago.

It now hopes that its narrative of “dual-engine government” will resonate with voters and the euphoria surrounding the inauguration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya will bring a hat-trick.

But there are bumps in the road.

Although the party won 115 of 200 seats in the November 2023 parliamentary elections, it faced embarrassment just weeks later. It lost the Kalampur seat even as it boosted the stature of its candidate by making him a minister.

Recently, he changed his stance after the BJP stopped giving ticket to Churu MP Rahul Kaswan.

The BJP, which is currently in power in Rajasthan, is also facing rising expectations from various sections of the Meena, Gujjar and Jat communities.

Some people in the Meena community are unhappy with the unsuccessful bid of Kirodi Lal Meena, who seemed to be running for the CM post. Disappointed that Congress “ignored” Sachin Pilot, Gujjars are seeking better representation in the new BJP cabinet.

Jats from Bharatpur and Delpur districts had staged a riot in January demanding their admission to the Other Backward Class quota at the central level.

But these are minor issues compared with the problems facing the Congress party. The Congress party’s strength in Rajasthan has been weakened by the ongoing feud between former prime minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot.

Former minister and four-time MP Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya resigned from the Congress last month to join the Bharatiya Janata Party. Jyoti Mirdha, who left the Congress ahead of last year’s assembly elections, got the BJP ticket from Nagaur.

Former Congress MP Richpal Mirdha, his son Vijaypal Mirdha, former independent MP Alok Beniwal and former Sewadar state president Suresh Chaudhary also left the Congress.

Malviya’s defection may help the BJP consolidate its position in Banswara and Dungarhpur Wagad districts, where the Janata Party is gaining influence.

Mirda is also expected to fight the influence of Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RLP), which won the Nagaur seat as a BJP ally in 2019 but fell apart over farmers’ issues.

The East Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP) is a key poll issue in the Congress during the Assembly polls. It criticized the BJP-led central government for not granting it “national project” status.

Now, as the Center signed a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the BJP-controlled governments of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to prepare a joint project report, the ruling party claimed to have resolved the issue.

In its first 15-seat slate, the BJP retained eight MPs and gave tickets to new faces in seven seats.

Two of the seven seats will become vacant after the incumbent MPs win the 2023 parliamentary elections.

The BJP has fielded a total of five MPs in the assembly elections.

In contrast, the Congress wants some of its prominent MLAs to contest the Lok Sabha polls, sources said. But they seem unwilling to take the risk.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)