Even before chief minister Vasundhara Raje entered the temple next to chowk with union minister Nitin Gadkari in tow, the atmosphere in this sleepy town was nothing short of electrical.
The small marketplace nestled around the Madhopur Chowk was buzzing like a beehive, its occupants, an assortment of shopkeepers catering to the locals, security personnel deployed along the picketed roads, and a crowd dressed in saffron bursting at the seams, and still congregating in anticipation of the BJP leaders who are to take out a road show.
Even before chief minister Vasundhara Raje entered the temple next to chowk with union minister Nitin Gadkari in tow, the atmosphere in this sleepy town was nothing short of electrical. This is the constituency where Pradesh Congress Committee chief Sachin Pilot is contesting his maiden assembly elections. The BJP, on Tuesday, seemed to have pulled out all plugs to get the adrenaline level up for the party workers canvassing for his opponent and PWD minister Yunus Khan.
Sahil, a strapping young man in his 20s was engaged in catching bundles of T-shirts bearing the portrait of Yunus Khan and was distributing it among the party workers. Like him, Madan Saini, a local BJP worker was escorting women in Tonk to the public ground where Khan was addressing a rally. The Unipole at the chowk held two huge banners, one of Pilot and the other of Khan. A tractor loaded with workers and stockpile of saffron robes chugged into the frenzied gathering. There was momentarily a mad scramble for the robes with lotus flower print on them as they flew out of the hands of the workers on the tractor and into the lucky hands of a jostling colleague on the road. The BJP quite literally left no stone unturned to project that Khan wasn’t fighting a battle in vain. The roadshow started after Vasundhara Raje emerged out of the temple after prayers. Nitin Gadkari had landed in Tonk an hour earlier. The two along with Khan joined the vehicular procession that would cover the next 3 odd kilometres in almost an hour.
Pilot wasn’t around in Tonk on Tuesday. He was canvassing for the candidates alongside Congress president Rahul Gandhi in Jhunjhunu and Udaipur. After the star campaigners had departed by their individual choppers, khan took to the mike to address the crowd that had gathered there since noon.
Apparently, farmers’ suicides is an issue here like in the rest of the state. “The Congress propaganda is that farmers have died under our government’s watch,” he tells the people in his voice that has started to crack and sound hoarse after the daylong campaigning. “But I must remind Pilot ji that the farmer may be down, but he’s brave. The farmer will not commit suicide, particularly when the government is standing with him,” he told the audience.
Outside the ground, not far from the gate, are BJP workers engaged in a banter. Upon inquiry they reveal themselves to be the ground management team working to make Khan’s campaign a success. This is one of the two most fiercely contested seats, the other being between chief minister Vasundhara Raje and Manvendra Singh in Jhalrapatan. So, will Khan manage to steal victory from Pilot? “Dekho mahaul toh ban gaya hai, ab vote kitne ayenge yeh dekhna hai (we have created the atmosphere, now it remains to be seen how many of them get converted into votes),” one of them said.
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 "Nitin Gadkari, CM Raje, Yunus Khan")
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