Over To Poll Players

On the last day for withdrawal of nomination, 13 candidates in three poll bound constituencies withdrew their names in a period of five days that ended on Monday. Now, 42 candidates remain in the fray for the January 29 bypolls to be held at Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats and Mandalgarh assembly constituency. Also, all the candidates have been allotted with election symbols.

The highest number of candidate in fray are from Ajmer. Here, after withdrawal of three nomination papers, 23 candidates are set to contest election which means the election department has to install two EVM machines in each poll station. There is a provision for maximum 16 candidates in a Balloting Unit. A direct contest between BJP’s Ramswaroop Lamba and Congress’ Raghu Sharma is expected here.

In Alwar, now 11 candidates will fight election as three candidates have made an exit. This Haryana-bordered constituency has Yadav candidates from two major parties- Karan Singh Yadav (Congress) and labour minister Jaswant Singh Yadav (BJP). Upen Yadav, a leader of organisation running movement for youths employment, has withdrawn its candidature. Rampal Jat, farmers leader, has also withdrawn nomination, giving sigh of relief to both Congress, BJP in Alwar. Berozgaar Mahasangh’s Upen Yadav and Shaadi Khan have also withdrawn in favour of Congress. In Mandalgarh, 8 candidates will take on the poll battle. Gopal Malyiva, a rebel leader who is contesting as an independent, has confirmed his participation in Mandalgarh.  As per gazette notification by the ECI the polling will be held on January 29 while counting will take place on February 1. The bypoll is being touted as the semi-finals before the big assembly election battle in the state that will be held in December this year.

Cong takes on BJP over Rajput jibe:

Congress has reacted sharply to Parliamentary minister Rajendra Rathore’s statement in which he accused party for denying ticket to the former union minister Jitendra Singh, a Rajput, from Alwar seat.

The party  did not hold back and listed instances when BJP insulted Rajput community and its leaders. “In Congress, Jitendra Singh has a high stature and party leaders respect him a lot. Instead, on his recommendations the party gave ticket to Karan Singh Yadav. Rathore indeed should tell the people why fake cases were registered against Jitendra in Bundi on the directions of the government,” said Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Congress spokesperson and Jaipur Congress Committee president.

Moreover, Rajput outfits extended support to Congress a couple of days back which might change poll equations in Ajmer, where the caste dominates several areas. Rathore took a jibe on the support advising the outfits to do social services instead of politics and he also accused Congress for denying ticket to Jitendra Singh, a Rajput, who represented the seat earlier.

Khachariyawas in a press conference on Monday also alleged that BJP government disrespected Rajput leaders and the entire community. Recalling Sanwrad incident, in which a crowd of the community assembled condoling gangster Anand Pal Singh’s killing, Khachariyawas said that the police opened fire on the people and inflicted atrocities while registering cases against innocent people.

“At that time the BJP MLAs were mocking the incident. The saffron party has 24 MLAs, though not a single one spoke against the police atrocities. Hence, Rathore should not speak in this matter (Rajputs in support of Congress),” Khachariyawas said.

‘Rajputs have always stood with BJP’:

Rajput faces from BJP, Rajendra Rathore and Ajay Singh Kilak held separate meetings at Ajmer LS constituency on Monday. Rathore campaigning at Masuda region, met with locals and held meetings at Jatan Kanwar memorial at Bidanwara and Vijay Nagar, while Kilak, who is also party’s in-charge of the constituency was at Dudu to motivate the party workers.

These leaders have a tough task on hand as several Rajput groups blatantly announced to support the Opposition party candidate in the constituency. A reflection of the same was witnessed at Kilak’s Dudu meeting where several local Rajput leaders associated with the party resolved against the direction of the groups supporting Opposition candidate.

“The Rajput community has always stood firmly with BJP and will not be mislead by any ‘fatwa’ by selected people,” Rajput leader, Datar Singh Nathawat assured the party workers at the Dudu meet.  As the community leaders within the party try to denounce the call of caste groups, senior party leader and home minister of Rajasthan, Gulab Chand Kataria is unable to understand the reason of discontent among the group leaders. These groups had recently held a protest against encounter of gangster Anandpal and were irked after CBI booked several of their leaders for violence during the protest.

However, Kataria do not see logic behind the Anandpal case fallout. “We did what the community leaders wanted while handling the Anandpal encounter incident, I do not see a reason of them being discontented on the issue,” said Katara while attending a public hearing at party state headquarter at Jaipur.