DNA Edit: Alarm bell!

Danger bells are ringing in Rajasthan for the BJP. The state, once the wind in PM Modi’s sail during the general elections, seems like it is steadily slipping from the BJP’s grasp.  Gone are the halcyon days when the BJP swept all of the 25 seats from Lok Sabha delivering a decisive, nay, a humiliating loss to the Congress. Earlier in 2013, BJP’s warhorse Vasundhara Raje had stormed to power winning an impressive 163 seats in the 200-member assembly.

However, those glory days are far behind the BJP, and it must now prepare for an electoral battle whose results seem perched precariously given the losses in Ajmer, Alwar and Mandalgarh by-polls. One reason why the BJP state unit is said to be foundering is the uneasy relationship of the CM with party president Amit Shah and her strained equation with seniors functionaries in the RSS. The groundswell suggests that farmers in the state are majorly disgruntled with the treatment meted out to them, not to mention the imperious tones that CM Raje is often notorious for adopting.

While the odds are stacked against the BJP, it is not as if it is a case of easy pickings for the Congress. Choosing a chief ministerial candidate between Ashok Gehlot, Jitendra Singh and Sachin Pilot will be no less than walking the razor’s edge as complex caste combination and permutations undergirds the trilemma. Gehlot’s earlier stint saw him receiving the full ire of the Jats, while Pilot is a Gujjar- a clan that seems to be forever at loggerheads with the Meenas, a substantial voting bloc.

On the other hand, Singh represents the Rajputs whose interest don’t coincide with the Jats. Getting out of this caste labyrinthine will require the Congress to stitch together a front, the likes of which were seen in the latest Punjab assembly elections with CM Amarendra Singh leading from the front and Navjot Singh Sidhu enthusing the cadres on the ground.