Upcoming general elections may see multi-pronged fight on many of 25 parliamentary seats
The Lok Sabha election in Rajasthan is no longer bipolar as small and regional parties like BTP and RLTP along with BSP prepare to dent poll prospects of BJP and Congress which are working on Mission-25. On the basis of vote shares they received the parties are likely to damage the prospects of both the mainstream outfits in over half-a-dozen seats.
The biggest challenge to both ruling Congress and BJP comes from the BSP which improved its tally and won 6 seats out of 189 it contested in the assembly polls. The party vote share went up to 4.0% from 3.37% in 2013. Though it is lower than a 7.6% vote share in 2008 when the party had won six seats.
The fence sitters, including the BSP, are a major headache to BJP and Congress in Alwar and Bharatpur districts where they won four seats - Tizara, Kishangarh Bas and Nadbai, Nagar respectively. The BSP also won one seat each in Karauli and Jhunjunu.
“In spite of the fact that the party has extended support to the Gehlot government, it is still unclear whether it would form an alliance with the grand old party for the general elections or not,” a Congress official said. The party leaders believe that BSP-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh announced on Sunday in the absence of Congress indicates BSP is ready to go alone in the upcoming elections and dent the chances of the Congress and BJP.
Another challenge for the Congress in particular comes from the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP). It had won two- seats - Chorasi and Sagwara (Dungarpur) of the 11 it contested in the assembly elections, and also performed well in at least two others. Its candidate was a runner up in Aspur constituency where he lost by a margin of just 5000 votes. The party was formed by Gujarat MLA Chhotubhai Vasava in 2017. The BTP can play a spoilsport in the Adivasi-dominated districts of Dungarpur, Banswara and Pratapgarh in south Rajasthan. It secured a vote share of 0.7%. The difference of vote share between BJP and Congress was just 0.5 percent. The BJP secured 38.8% vote share, while the Congress managed to get 39.3 percent.
Jat is an important segment in the Rajasthan electorate and has the potential to influence as many as 50 seats. The RLTP (Rashtriya Loktantrik Party) founded by Hanuman Beniwal is now a threat to the parties.
Goliath Slayers
- The RLTP independently contested 57 of the 199 seats in the state assembly elections and managed to win three of them from Khinvsar, Merta (Nagaur) and Bhopalgarh.
- The Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) won two seats - Chorasi and Sagwara (Dungarpur) of the 11 it contested.
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