BJP wants UP CM Yogi to help garner Hindu votes in MP, Rajasthan

“The BJP high command will decide on Yogiji’s itinerary but yes, we do hope that he will campaign in Madhya Pradesh for there is no denying that he has influence here,” says BJP leader Rajneesh Agarwal.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) units in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan want Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath to campaign for them in the upcoming assembly polls in a bid to consolidate the Hindu vote, according to people familiar with the developments.

Adityanath, who took over as UP CM last March, is also the chief of the influential Gorakhnath mutt. He has been involved in election campaigns in states such as Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh in 2017 and Karnataka in 2018. “The party high command will decide on Yogiji’s itinerary. We hope that he will campaign here because he has influence here,” said Madhya Pradesh BJP leader Rajneesh Agarwal.

Rajasthan BJP spokesperson Mukesh Pareek said there was a demand for Adityanath to campaign in the state because of his personality.

“He is a good speaker and also a religious leader. His personality attracts people,” he said. Senior party leader Onkar Singh LakhaSingh wat said the Nath sampradaya (tradition), of which Adityanath is the head, wields significant influence in Rajasthan. “Since the ninth century, the Marwar area and Alwar have been centres of the Nath faith so Yogi Adityanath is bound to have a resonance in these areas.” Party functionaries indicated Adityanath might visit the state in the first week of November.

Adityanath is already campaigning in Chhattisgarh, where the BJP is in power, and delivered a speech on Tuesday after chief minister Raman Singh filed his nomination papers. Using references from the Ramayana , Adityanath urged the electorate to vote to a fourth straight term in office. Singh touched Adityanath’s feet and sought his blessings. “His programme is still being finalised but yes, it’s certain that he is going to be among party’s star campaigners in pollbound states. He has a great following and will be touring extensively in these states,” says Mrityunjay Kumar, Adityanath’s adviser. Chhattisgarh goes to the polls in two phases on November 12 and 20, Madhya Pradesh on November 28 and Rajasthan on December 7.

The Congress, which is the opposition in all three states, said Adityanath’s campaign style relies on communal polarisation.

“The BJP is trying to communalise the atmosphere by using Adityanath, especially in bordering areas of Madhya Pradesh, but he won’t succeed for the people also know that he couldn’t save children from dying in his own backyard and the less said the better about law and order in UP,” says Bhupendra Gupta, a Congress leader in Madhya Pradesh, referring to the controversial deaths of scores of babies in a Gorakhpur hospital last year.

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Sitting BJP Lawmakers In Rajasthan Fear Party May Drop Them

No list is out yet in Rajasthan, where assembly elections will be held after the polling in Chhattisgarh, but party leaders say there is apprehension among its MLAs over failing to secure a renomination.

After the BJP denied tickets to several sitting MLAs in the first list of candidates for the Chhattisgarh assembly polls, party legislators in Rajasthan are keeping their fingers crossed.

No list is out yet in Rajasthan, where assembly elections will be held after the polling in Chhattisgarh, but party leaders say there is apprehension among its MLAs over failing to secure a renomination.

This comes amid speculation that about 80 BJP MLAs in Rajasthan will be denied the ticket this time as the party fights anti-incumbency and faces a stiffer challenge from the Congress in the December 7 elections, as indicated by some opinion polls.

The current 200-member Assembly has 163 BJP MLAs.

Party leaders said some sitting MLAs are trying to seek tickets for their family members after their poor performance in the bypolls for the parliamentary seats of Ajmer and Alwar and the Mandalgarh assembly seat.

Several party MLAs have indicated to the state leadership that want to change their constituency this time.

But the party may not allow this.

“Let the list of candidates be announced,” BJP’s Rajasthan election in-charge Prakash Javadekar recently told reporters. “We might replace candidates but the candidates will not be allowed to change seats.”

In the run-up to the elections, party leaders including Mr Javadekar, BJP state in-charge Avinash Rai Khanna and state BJP president Madan Lal Saini have also made clear that winnability would be the key criterion for picking candidates.

Party leaders said they are working on how to deal with possible protests by MLAs who are denied tickets and their supporters.

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BJP slams Rahul Gandhi, says he knows nothing about Rajasthan

The BJP has accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading lies about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rajasthan government to mislead the people of Rajasthan.

HIGHLIGHTS

BJP accused Rahul Gandhi of spreading lies about PM Modi & the Rajasthan govt
BJP said that Gandhi hardly knew anything about Rajasthan
BJP said the Vasundhara Raje govt has waived off farmer loans upto Rs 50,000

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused Congress President Rahul Gandhi of spreading lies about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rajasthan government to mislead the people of Rajasthan.

The BJP was reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s allegations against Modi and Raje in Jhalawar and Kota on Wednesday.

The BJP said that Gandhi hardly knew anything about Rajasthan, the problems of the people and what the government has been doing for them.

The BJP said that the Vasundhara Raje government in the state has waived off farmer loans up to Rs 50,000 about which Gandhi was as ignorant as he was about the dramatic improvement in education standards following the merger of non-performing primary schools with senior secondary ones.

The BJP also said that Gandhi’s allegations about shifting CBI Director because he was about to start investigating Rafael deal were misplaced.

The BJP also accused Congress of blocking recruitments of teachers and other employees by creating hurdles earlier through courts and now by complaining to the Election Commission.

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‘Congress Confident of Winning at Least 150 Seats in Rajasthan’

Congress manifesto committee member Dharmendra Rathore and former Minister and Rajasthan MLA Ramkesh Meena – in an interview with Newsclick –spoke about a range of issues with which the party is approaching people, seeking their votes and support, ahead of the upcoming assembly elections.

Both the leaders said that the party is united, and there is no infighting over the leadership issue. They claimed that Congress will win not less than 150 seats in the upcoming elections. Rajasthan is going to polls on December 7. The results will be announced on December 11.

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Arvind Kejriwal’s Jaipur rally to kickstart AAP campaign in Rajasthan

Arvind Kejriwal will hold an election rally in Jaipur on October 28
AAP has already announced that it will contest on all 200 assembly seats
Jaipur rally will kickstart AAP’s Rajasthan campaign

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convenor and Delhi Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will be holding his first election rally in Rajasthan on October 28. The AAP has already announced that it will contest on all 200 assembly seats during the upcoming polls in Rajasthan.

As per Gopal Sharma, Media In-charge for AAP, “Arvind Kejriwal will hold his election rally at the Ramleela Maidan in Jaipur on October 28. He will hold 7 – 8 rallies in Rajasthan in the run-up to the polls.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, apart from other known faces of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), will be campaigning for the party for the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan.

“They are going to campaign very intensively in Rajasthan.”, Deepak Vajpai, AAP in-charge for Rajasthan.

Assembly elections in Rajasthan, in the past, have mainly been two – sided contests with the BJP and the Congress garnering most of the seats. But the AAP, which plans to contest on all the seats in the upcoming Assembly elections in Rajasthan, sounded confident of its chances.

So far, the AAP has released six lists. Names of candidates for 62 seats have already been announced.

“We will be contesting on all 200 seats.” senior AAP leader from Rajasthan, Devendra Shastri mentioned, while speaking with India Today.

As per AAP, party supporters from across the state will participate in Arvind Kejriwal’s rally to be held in Jaipur on October 28. Party leaders visited Bharatpur to take stock of preparations vis-a-vis the upcoming Assembly polls and to ask party workers for maximum participation on October 28.

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Rajasthan polls: Manvendra Singh’s entry gives Congress the edge over BJP among Rajputs

The MLA has considerable influence in Marwar, which sends 30 legislators to the Assembly.

Banking on anti-incumbency sentiment against the Vasundhara Raje-led Bharatiya Janata Party government in Rajasthan to help it put up a winning performance in the December 7 state election, the Congress received a shot in the arm with former BJP leader Manvendra Singhjoining its ranks on October 17. Congress leaders and political pundits say the Rajput leader’s entry gives the Congress a clear edge over the BJP in the Marwar region, which sends 30 legislators to the state’s 200-strong Assembly.

Manvendra Singh, the MLA from Sheo, is the son of former Union minister and senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh. He quit the BJP in September, saying that his decision to join the party had been a mistake. With his departure, the BJP no longer has a Rajput leader with a high evel of popularity in the state. Rajputs account for around 7% of the state’s population.

In previous elections, influential Rajput leaders such as Jaswant Singh and the late Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had boosted the BJP’s electoral prospects in Marwar, which comprises the districts of Jodhpur, Barmer, Nagaur, Sirohi, Pali, and Jalore. On average, 15 to 17 Rajput legislators have been voted in to the 200-member state assembly during each election, most of them coming from the BJP. Of the 27 Rajputs elected to the House in 2013, for instance, 24 were from the BJP.

However, that support began to crumble after the BJP denied Jaswant Singh a Lok Sabha ticket in the 2014 general elections and decided instead to field Colonel Sonaram Choudhary, a former Congress leader and a Jat. Jaswant Singh chose to contest as an independent candidate. He lost the election by a margin of 80,000 votes. The Rajputs were miffed with the BJP’s treatment of Jaswant Singh. After Jaswant Singh slipped into a coma in August 2014, Manvendra Singh started mobilising votersagainst the BJP.

Why Rajputs are angry with Raje, BJP

Evidence of Manvendra Singh’s popularity was apparent on September 22, when his Swabhiman Rally in Barmer drew lakhs of supporters. In fact, resentment among Rajputs with the ruling BJP is so intense that members of the community threw stones at Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s bus during her Gaurav Yatra in August, forcing her to complete the Marwar leg of her campaign tour in a helicopter.

Other factors have also contributed to Rajput anger against Raje and the BJP. In July 2017, they violently protested against the killing of Rajput gangster Anandpal Singh by the state police. Singh was facing murder charges. His family claimed he had wanted to surrender and that the encounter was fake. Eventually, the Central government gave in to the community’s demand and ordered a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry. The fact that no Rajput BJP legislator came out in support of Anandpal Singh’s family angered the community.

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Rajasthan polls 2018: Some interesting facts from history

Two hundred Assembly seats in Rajasthan will go to elections on December 7 and the results will be declared on December 11, along with those in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Telangana. Rajasthan is one of those few states in the country that still sees a stable two-party competition and the power changing hands every five years. Though the state had once been a bastion of the Congress, the BJP tasted success in this state for the first time in 1990 and he two parties have been in and out of power over the last 28 years, especially since the 1993 election.

In the 2013 Assembly election, the BJP had a sweeping victory by winning 163 out of 200 seats, while the Congress won just 21. The National People’s Party won four seats while the BSP won three seats. Here are some interesting facts about Assembly elections in Rajasthan:

–Rajasthan has gone to polls 14 times since 1952 when the first election was held and of these, the Congress has won nine times and the BJP four. The Janata Party formed government once (1977).

–The Congress had one-sided dominance in the state’s politics till 1977 when it lost power for the first time and the Janata Party came to power, just as it had at the Centre. Bhairon Singh Sekhawat became Rajasthan’s first non-Congress chief minister. He was also the state’s first BJP chief minister who took office in 1990.

–The Congress returned to power in 1980 and continued till 1990 when the BJP came to power for the first time. However, President’s Rule was imposed in the state in the wake of the Babri demolition in December 1992 and it continued for a year when Sekhawat returned to power. It is so far the only time that the BJP came to power in Rajasthan by winning two consecutive elections (1990 and 1993).

–In 1990, the BJP won 85 out of 200 seats while in 1993, its tally went up to 95.

–The two parties have come to power every five years since then. While Sekhawat served between 1993 and 1998, Ashok Gehlot was the chief minister between 1998 and 2003 and 2008 and 2013. Current Chief Miniser Vasundhara Raje served between 2003 and 2008 and then between 2013 and 2018. Can she match Sekhawat’s feat of becoming chief minister for consecutive terms?

–The Congress succeeded to win 150-plus seats in the Assembly election for the first time in 1998 when Gehlot became the CM.

–The BJP’s show of winning 163 seats in the 2013 edition has been the most emphatic in the state’s history. In 2003, it came to power by winning 120 seats.

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Rajasthan : Six new Zika cases, total 123

Six more people tested positive for Zika virus in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district Sunday, taking the total number of such cases to 123, a government official said.

Of the 123 patients, around 105 have recovered after treatment, he said.

The state health department also formed a five-member committee on Saturday to investigate, examine and track Zika virus disease in pregnant patients of first trimester. The committee will submit the report to the director public health from time to time, an order said. Most of the cases which have been reported are from Shastri Nagar area here where fogging and other anti-larvae activities are being carried out to prevent the spread of the virus.

The virus, transmitted through the aedes aegypti mosquito, causes fever, skin rashes, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain. It is harmful to pregnant women, as it can lead to microcephaly, a condition in which a baby’s head is significantly smaller in newborns. In India, the first outbreak was reported in Ahmedabad in January 2017 and the second in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district in July that year. Both these outbreaks were successfully contained through intensive surveillance and vector management.

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Rajasthan elections: Soured ties with Rajputs key hurdle in Vasundhara Raje’s poll fight

Polling to the 200 Assembly seats is to take place on December 7. Rajputs account for about 12 per cent of the state’s population and wield influence in at least two dozen Assembly seats.

As Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje battles what is being perceived as an intense anti-incumbency factor to retain power, soured ties between her and an influential Rajput community seem to be an unresolved obstacle for the ruling BJP.

Relationship between Rajputs, a traditional support base of the BJP since Jana Sangh days, and the Raje-led government has been on a downslide since 2016 and the recent move of Manvendra Singh, MLA and son of former Union Minister and Rajput leader Jaswant Singh, to join the Congress has worsened it, BJP leaders admitted.

Party leaders pointed out a series of events, including the Rajmahal land row, the Padmaavat controversy, the encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh and Raje’s opposition to the BJP central leadership’s choice of Gajendra Singh Shekhawat as state unit chief have left a deep dent on the party’s acceptability within the community. “The damage is irreparable, at least before the polls,” said a BJP leader from Rajasthan.

Polling to the 200 Assembly seats is to take place on December 7. Rajputs account for about 12 per cent of the state’s population and wield influence in at least two dozen Assembly seats. “They have been traditional supporters of the BJP. The contribution of Rajput leader and former Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who was a three-term CM, was crucial for the BJP’s electoral successes,” the leader said.

The current government has three cabinet ministers and a junior minister from the Rajput community.

The community’s distancing from the government started when Padmini Devi of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur took out a public protest against sealing of the main entrance of Rajmahal Palace during an anti-encroachment drive. Padmini Devi is the mother of BJP MLA Diya Kumari, who had joined the party ahead of the last Assembly polls. Many in the Rajput community did not appreciate the way government officials locked the entrance to the palace and did not forgive Raje for the “humiliation” the family faced.

The simmering anger turned into rage when Anandpal Singh, a gangster from the Ravana Rajput community, was killed in an encounter. Despite the fact that Ravana Rajputs are considered by Rajputs as belonging to an inferior caste, the killing triggered protests, with Rajput bodies demanding a CBI probe. When the government agreed to a CBI probe, it sent about 115 cases against him to the agency. The already-soured ties between the community and the government slipped further down.

Then came the protests over film Padmaavat. The community aggressively opposed the film and was upset that the government allowed it to be shot. The ban on the film at the time of release did not satisfy them.
The Rajputs were also angry at Raje’s opposition to Gajendra Shekhawat as state party chief. The BJP central leadership had chosen Shekhawat primarily to placate the Rajputs, but Raje was adamant and Rajya Sabha MP Madanlal Saini, an OBC leader, got the post.

The latest development in this regard was Manvendra Singh joining the Congress. Political observers say Jaswant Singh is still respected and regarded as a top leader of the community and Manvendra’s move would appeal to the Rajputs upset with the “ill-treatment” of Jaswant Singh.

The Singh family’s ties with Raje and BJP worsened after the party denied ticket to Jaswant from Barmer in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Manvendra was suspended from the party for campaigning for his father in that election in which Jaswant contested against BJP’s official candidate. However, Manvendra continued to represent Sheo as an MLA.

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AAP to contest all seats in Rajasthan

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday announced its first list of 63 candidates for the Assembly election in Rajasthan, while inviting suggestions from the public on its draft manifesto, which would also be released shortly. The party would contest from all the 200 seats in the State.

AAP State coordinator Devendra Shastri said here that three of the declared candidates would shortly be changed for various reasons. The lists comprising the rest of the candidates would be released after the meetings of the party’s campaign committee to be held during the next few days.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal would address a public rally at Ramlila Maidan here on October 28 amid indications that several disgruntled leaders of the both the BJP and Congress might join the AAP at the event. Mr. Shastri said the rally would be a significant occasion for spelling out the party’s vision and policies for Rajasthan.

Mr. Shastri said the Jaipur Municipal Corporation had “deliberately delayed” the allotment of venue for the rally on the pretext of seeking permission from the Election Commission. “The municipal officers, under pressure from the BJP government, harassed the AAP functionaries for more than a week. There is no provision for getting the EC’s permission for allotment of a place for a public meeting,” he said.

The AAP State unit was in a confident mood after the BJP leader and Kisan Mahapanchayat founder, Rampal Jat, joined the party earlier this week. Mr. Jat, a former BJP general secretary, said the ruling party had failed to keep its promises made to the farmers and had “completely ignored” the rural populace facing difficulties in all spheres of life.

The 63 candidates declared by AAP so far include farmers’ ideologue Giriraj Singh Khangarot (Malpura), National Council member Sunil Agiwal (Bhilwara), chartered accountant M.P. Choyal (Ladpura), medico Bharat Gupta (Malviya Nagar, Jaipur) and activist Ashok Jain (Anta). Mr. Shastri, a former journalist, will contest the polls from Civil Lines constituency in Jaipur.

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