Rajasthan Bypolls: Vasundhara Raje, Sachin Pilot fight it out in battle of perceptions

The bypolls for two parliamentary and one assembly seats of Rajasthan, months before the state polls, are being seen in many quarters as a referendum on Chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s government. State Congress chief Sachin Pilot also has a lot riding on the outcome of the polls as a favourable verdict would put a stamp of approval on his leadership.

Barely 10 months to go for the Assembly polls, by-elections to these three seats was not the two rivals were looking for but they have concretely fought a battle that would prove to be a deciding factor on their political future.

The polling for the Lok Sabha seats of Ajmer and Alwar, and the Assembly seat of Mandalgarh is currently underway.  These seats fell vacant due to the deaths of Ajmer MP Sanwar Lal Jat, Alwar MP Chand Nath and Mandalgarh MLA Kirti Kumari, all of whom were from the BJP, last year.

The fate of 41 candidates depends on over 38 lakh voters on these three seats but the fight is between two traditional rivals – the BJP and the Congress. From Alwar, the BJP has fielded Labour Minister Jaswant Singh Yadav who is facing Congress's Karan Singh Yadav. 

Former Union minister Sanwar Lal Jat's son Ramswaroop Lamba is the BJP's candidate in Ajmer and faces former Congress MLA Raghu Sharma.  Shakti Singh Hada is contesting from Mandalgarh Assembly constituency in Bhilwara district as BJP candidate. The Congress has named Vivek Dhakad as it's candidate for the Mandalgarh bypoll.

Caste is expected to play a major role in these elections and both parties have gone down to micromanaging every vote.  The focus of both the parties is on to bring their voters to the booth. While the results of these three seats would not play any decisive role in the current governments at the Centre or in the state, they may, however, impact the outcome of the next elections in the state. 

In the battle of perceptions, these bypolls are crucial. The results will decide whether the public still accepts the leadership of Vasundhara Raje Scindia or Sachin Pilot is the more obvious choice for the top post in the state which will go to polls before the end of the year.