Will Gehlot’s welfare schemes turn out to be a game-changer for Congress in Rajasthan?

October 12, 2023 admin

At an occasion hosted by a media group on September 24, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi remarked that the celebration was assured of successful Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Telangana, however it could be an in depth name in Rajasthan. This was interpreted as a refined message to the celebration’s management in Rajasthan to get its act collectively. Within the 200-member Home, the Congress has 108 members, the Bharatiya Janata Get together 70, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Get together 3, the Communist Get together of India (Marxist) 3, the Bharatiya Tribal Get together 2, the Rashtriya Lok Dal 1, and Independents 13.

On September 23, Gandhi inaugurated a brand new web site for the workplace of the Pradesh Congress Committee in Jaipur. On the Mansarovar grounds, a preferred web site for public conferences, girls celebration staff had been mobilised from in and round Jaipur, and girls’s points and the Girls’s Reservation Invoice shaped the core of the speeches.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a whirlwind tour of Rajasthan on September 25, the place he addressed booth-level celebration staff. It additionally marked the conclusion of the 4 Parivartan Sankalp Yatras, unfold over 19 days and protecting all 200 constituencies. Modi has made 9 visits to the State previously one 12 months. The private curiosity he’s displaying within the State in all probability has to do with the rift within the State unit that’s making information. Observers say the celebration is break up vertically all the way down to the rank and file. The Parivartan Yatras had been additionally meant to unite these factions.

Within the years previous, former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje led all of the Parivartan Yatras, drawing large crowds, particularly girls. However this time she didn’t achieve this and even most popular to remain out of the Jhalawar and Kota legs of the yatra. Raje represents Jhalawar within the Meeting and her son, Dushyant Singh, is the MP from Jhalawar-Baran.

In 2013, Raje led the celebration to a giant win: 163 of the 200 seats. However in 2018 the celebration’s tally was decreased to 70, and since then issues haven’t labored out in her favour. Actually, this time the atmospherics within the celebration headquarters on Sardar Patel Marg in Jaipur is relatively muted. The irony was not misplaced on anybody. A celebration that has been going to city on the significance of girls in politics had successfully proven to its most vital chief within the State, a girl, the door. Whereas there may be unanimity on the purpose that Raje is the one chief who can pull off a victory for the BJP, she herself doesn’t appear to care in regards to the central management.

Additionally Learn | Uncertainty looms over Vasundhara Raje’s return to BJP management in Rajasthan

Raje’s stature inside the celebration doesn’t sit nicely with many leaders on the Centre or within the State. “Nigalte nahi ban raha hai aur ugaltey bhi nahi ban raha hai,” quipped a celebration insider. It merely signifies that the BJP can neither settle for her nor reject her utterly. Raje has been saved out of the management of all of the election committees. On September 24, nonetheless, she participated in a core committee assembly and made it some extent to tweet about it.

Chief Minister aspirants

The BJP has been at pains to mission the idea of a “mixed management” in Rajasthan. Other than Raje, there are near a dozen Chief Minister aspirants: State BJP chief C.P. Joshi; former celebration chiefs Satish Poonia and O.P. Mathur; State-in-charge Arun Singh; Chief of the Opposition Rajendra Rathore; Union Ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and Ashwini Vaishnaw; Alwar MP Mahant Balaknath; former Residence Minister and Assam Governor Gulab Chand Kataria; and Lok Sabha member Diya Kumari.

Poonia, a core committee member, doesn’t suppose that too many chief ministerial aspirants is an issue. “I see the so-called management disaster as a bonus. The aala kamaan [top leadership] will lastly resolve,” he mentioned.

On the BJP’s Parivartan Sankalp Mahasabha in Jaipur’s Dadiya village on September 25.
| Photograph Credit score:
PTI

Raje, he emphasised, had led the Parivartan Yatras in 2003 and 2013. “We received 120 seats in 2003 and 163 in 2013. This time resulting from paucity of time, we divided the State into 4 zones and allotted accountability to completely different leaders,” mentioned Poonia, dismissing the notion that Raje had been ignored.

In March, Poonia himself, MLA from Amber constituency, was eliminated as State BJP chief. State presidents of the celebration have been modified on the premise of caste equations and inside factionalism. He was changed by the low-key C.P. Joshi, who was the parliamentarian from Chittorgarh. Joshi started his political profession with the Nationwide College students’ Union of India, the coed wing of the Congress, whereas Poonia has at all times been with the Sangh Parivar.

A number of others too really feel sidelined within the celebration. Kailash Meghwal, former Speaker and sitting MLA from Shahpura, was issued a present trigger discover for accusing Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal of corruption. Kailash Meghwal was Minister in Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s authorities in 1991 and barely misplaced an election. His victory margins had been legendary. Thought of a Raje loyalist, Kailash Meghwal was not anticipated to get the ticket this time. Observers attribute his outbursts towards Arjun Ram Meghwal to this. Union Water Assets Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat described him and the sitting MLA from Soorsagar, 85-year-old Suryakanta Vyas, as senile. An aggravated Vyas declared she would contest once more.

BJP’s marketing campaign focus

The BJP’s marketing campaign will give attention to girls’s reservation, legislation and order, and crimes towards girls, other than tushtikaran, or appeasement, of minorities. BJP leaders and Modi himself have repeatedly referred to the homicide in June 2022 of the Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal, who had allegedly made blasphemous remarks towards Prophet Muhammad. They declare that Kanhaiya was not given safety regardless of threats to his life.

Members of the minority neighborhood are equally displeased with the federal government. Mohammad Hasan, a retired professor of geography at Jodhpur College, mentioned that whereas Gehlot introduced a beneficiant compensation and authorities jobs for Kanhaiya’s kin, he didn’t present the identical generosity with the 2 youths from Ghatmika village in Bharatpur who had been killed by cow vigilantes. Regardless of this he believed that the minorities would again the Congress.

Pointing to the resentment towards the federal government, Poonia listed out its failures: “The Congress promised farm mortgage waivers and employment however did nothing. There have been query paper leaks [of recruitment examinations]. Legislation and order is a giant situation. Appeasement of minorities is a core situation. There may be penetration of the [banned] Fashionable Entrance of India.”

He additionally highlighted the federal government’s ban on Ram Navami rallies and the clamping of Part 144 of the Code of Legal Process (prohibiting the meeting of greater than three individuals) through the Hindu New Yr whereas permission was given for different rallies. Poonia believes that Central schemes like Jan Dhan, Jan Jeevan Mission, Ujjwala, and Kisan Samman Nidhi, and ideological points like Article 370 and Ram Mandir will work to the BJP’s benefit.

Opinion is split on whether or not the Congress can do one thing that has not been completed since 1998: return to energy for a second straight time. One view is that the federal government, beneath the management of three-time Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, will make a comeback solely on the premise of its welfare schemes, particularly the Chiranjeevi Well being Insurance coverage Scheme (which gives protection of as much as Rs.25 lakh), Annapurna meals kits, enhancement of old-age pension, fuel cylinder subsidy, free electrical energy as much as 100 models, revival of the Previous Pension Scheme, and the scheme to supply free cell phones to younger girls and single girls.

Congress staff at a rally on September 23, Jaipur.
| Photograph Credit score:
T.Okay. Rajalakshmi

Joshi counters this whereas chatting with Frontline and says that the Congress has failed on each entrance. “The event in Rajasthan is especially due to Modi and Central sources. If the Central authorities’s Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana had not been there, there would have been no Chiranjeevi scheme. The State authorities has spent little from its sources. Present me one one that has bought Rs.25 lakh from the scheme. The free cell scheme is a rip-off, meant to learn just one firm,” he mentioned.

The federal government has persistently demanded nationwide mission standing for the Jap Rajasthan Canal Mission (ERCP), which is predicted to learn at the least 13 districts. It has turn out to be a political situation right now. Despite the fact that the detailed mission report (DPR) was submitted to the Central authorities in 2017, when Raje was on the helm, the Centre declined it nationwide mission standing citing sure standards.

For the Congress, successful japanese Rajasthan, the place the Bharatpur division alone has 47 Meeting seats, is paramount. In 2018, the Congress received the vast majority of the Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste seats right here. It’s banking as soon as once more on the dominant Meena neighborhood to bail it out, and the ERCP is its trump card. Rather a lot will rely upon the ticket distribution, mentioned a former media adviser to the Chief Minister.

Highlights

The BJP faces inside divisions, with greater than a dozen Chief Minister aspirants, whereas the Congress strives laborious to retain energy amidst challenges.
The BJP’s focus is on girls’s reservation, legislation and order, crimes towards girls, and minority appeasement. The Congress focusses its marketing campaign on welfare schemes.
The BJP is attempting to mission a mixed management thought. Congress, too, faces challenges with leaders like Sachin Pilot who has rebelled previously.

Divided home

The Congress, too, is a divided home. After the Congress victory in 2018, Sachin Pilot was made Deputy Chief Minister though he believed he had a declare to the highest publish. He rebelled, organising protests towards his personal authorities. There have been rumours that Pilot would transfer over to the BJP. The BJP denied all rumours of getting a task in instigating Pilot. Insiders say that the Congress authorities may have fallen simply because it did in Madhya Pradesh, however Raje herself was not sufficiently . The Congress central management salvaged the scenario and later inducted Pilot into the Congress Working Committee.

Issues rested there till July this 12 months, when Rajendra Singh Gudha, a Minister and Gehlot’s confidant, accused the Chief Minister’s Workplace of corruption. Previously with the Bahujan Samaj Get together (BSP), Gudha had joined the Congress together with six BSP legislators, giving the federal government a cushty majority. In 2008 as nicely, when he first contested on the BSP ticket, he threw his weight behind Gehlot. For this he was rewarded and made a Minister.

In July, nonetheless, he modified tack and questioned the federal government for its stance on Manipur, atrocities towards girls, and corruption within the Rajasthan Cricket Affiliation (RCA). He introduced out a “pink diary” that he mentioned detailed the corruption. The RCA is headed by Gehlot’s son, Vaibhav. Extra lately, yet one more large identify from the Congress, Jyoti Mirdha, scion of the Mirdha household and former Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur, left the celebration. She joined the BJP.

In the meantime, the voters are nonetheless undecided; some imagine that the federal government’s advantages have reached them, whereas a bit of the farmers is sad that crop insurance coverage claims haven’t been met sufficiently. In Churu district, an agitation by the All India Kisan Sabha has been on for 4 months now. Then there are allegations of corruption too.

Additionally Learn | Rift in Rajasthan Congress between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot out within the open

Kaluram Yadav, who needs to affix the police, alleged that “ghaplas” (fraud) are concerned in filling authorities vacancies. He has a vote in Jaipur (Rural) and says he’ll vote for the BJP though his mother and father will help the Congress. His sister has benefited from the Chiranjeevi scheme and says she’s going to vote Congress.

A mason who spoke on the situation of anonymity mentioned that he didn’t have a Chiranjeevi “card” as he didn’t get day off from his work. The federal government organised Mehngai Rahat Camps, the place individuals may register for numerous advantages. However many couldn’t achieve this as a result of they may not spare time from their every day wage jobs.

Sanjay Madho, a State secretariat member of the Communist Get together of India (Marxist), mentioned that western Rajasthan was infamous for atrocities towards Dalits and that the Congress was detached in such situations. “Gehlot meets solely those that matter,” he mentioned. A member of the Daman Pratirodh Andolan (Anti-oppression marketing campaign), a entrance of 40 organisations, Madho mentioned that final 12 months a Scheduled Caste youth, Jitender Meghwal, in Pali was murdered for sporting a moustache. The Chief Minister, Madho mentioned, by no means went to Pali. “Even right now Dalits can’t drive scooters in Rajput-dominated areas. They’ve to modify off the engine and push them manually,” he mentioned. Political will is essential to deal with such points.

For the BJP, successful Rajasthan will probably be a referendum on Modi’s efficiency, whereas for the Congress, the survival of the celebration itself within the State might rely upon the election final result.