Vasundhara Raje reaches out to Sangh ahead of Rajasthan elections

Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje reached out to RSS functionaries at the Sangh state headquarters in Jaipur on Diwali eve exactly one month before polling starts in the state on December 7. Her meeting with Sangh’s key functionaries including prant pracharak Nimbaram and co-pracharak Shailendra is likely to garner political gains for BJP in the upcoming elections.

The ruling party, grappling with massive anti-incumbency, would need RSS support to be voted back to power for a second term — a feat no incumbent government has been able to achieve in last 25 years.

This informal meeting is also significant in view of the proposed meeting of BJP’s parliamentary board on November 11, where the party is likely to finalise its first list of candidates for Rajasthan.
“The organisation of RSS is very strong in Rajasthan. BJP has been gaining from its cadre in all elections. Since anti-incumbency factor is very strong, Sangh support becomes even more vital,” said a BJP leader.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat visited Rajasthan several times in past few months to mobilise RSS leaders and cadre at ground level. BJP chief Amit Shah has also held meetings with RSS functionaries including Bhagwat, to draw strategies for victory in Rajasthan.

“Raje doesn’t enjoy a warm relationship with the Sangh. In the bypolls early this year, Raje fielded candidates in Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats without any consultation with RSS. The Sangh, then, distanced itself from the elections and BJP had to suffer severe defeat,” said a Sangh functionary.

In the upcoming elections, BJP is said to have consulted RSS over candidates in a large number of seats. Sangh is also said to have started canvassing in BJP’s favour.

“The canvassing will intensify once tickets are announced. BJP is likely to give more than 50% tickets to leaders with RSS background. This will help BJP synchronise its campaign with Sangh,” said a senior BJP leader.

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Rajasthan Polls 2018: Will BJP be able to overcome the deep-rooted resentment by Dalits?

According to the 2016 NCRB report, Rajasthan accounts for the third-highest number of crimes involving atrocities against the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs), with Jaipur accounting for more than half the number of such crimes in metropolitan cities.

An interesting statistic that came out of that report was that Rajasthan was the only state that disposed of 38 such cases using the method of plea bargaining. A total of 1,063 cases were disposed of by the Rajasthan police in 2016 for want of evidence.

This is not the only indicator of the growing resentment that the Dalit community has against the ruling BJP government in the state.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had read down the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, saying a preliminary inquiry would be conducted before registering an FIR against alleged perpetrators and that the accused will now have a right to seek anticipatory bail. This enraged the Dalits, triggering mass protests across the country.

The tremendous anger in the Dalit community of Rajasthan was mobilized into aggressive protests on April 2 and nationwide bandhs. According to The Caravan, 311 FIRs were filed against people belonging to the SC/ST community after April 2, and none of them have been withdrawn.

The incident may have reminded the community of the Dangawas violence of 2014. In May 2014, there was a dispute between the Meghwals (belonging to Scheduled Caste) and the Jats over a 15-acre plot of land in the Dangawas village of Nagaur district. The dispute escalated quickly into a violent altercation, killing five Dalits, who claimed to be the caretakers of that land.

At that time, Meghwals ran from pillar to post seeking justice, but in vain. In fact, 16 of the 32 MLAs of seats reserved for SCs are Meghwals. Yet, none of them allegedly lent their support to the community at that time, including the MLA of Dangawas.

Rajasthan’s Dalits comprise around 18 percent of the total population, out of which Meghwals constitute more than 50 percent. The Meghwals are concentrated in the central and western part of the state.

Meanwhile, the other half of the Dalit community comprises the Bairwas, the Raigars, and the Jatavs who are concentrated in the eastern districts that border Uttar Pradesh. Besides, more than 20 percent of the community is urban and comprises the entrepreneurial Khatiqs, the Valmiki and the Jingar sub-castes.

Amongst these, Meghwals have been the most vocal about their exasperation with the ruling dispensation, and are most likely to vote for the Congress. The voting patterns of the Jatavs is similar to that of their counterparts in Uttar Pradesh and they are likely to vote for Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party. While the urban Dalits are more inclined towards the saffron party, the Bairwas are torn between the Congress and the BJP.

The BJP, it seems, has taken cognizance of the issue and is treading on the path of course correction. As a part of their outreach programme, the Vasundhara Raje-led BJP government announced a loan waiver amounting to Rs 114 crore in September this year.

However, the Dalits are piqued with their scanty representation in the higher judiciary and education sector, and the saffron party will have to work really hard to earn back the Dalit vote.

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Rajasthan polls: Vasundhara Raje to Contest From Home-turf Jhalrapatan

Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Sunday announced that she will contest the upcoming Assembly election in the state from the Jhalrapatan constituency in Jhalawar district.

“I have a 30-year-old connection with the people of Jhalawar. The people here have showered love and affection. I have done whatever I could do for Jhalawar and Baran districts,” she said.

Raje has been elected thrice from the Jhalrapatan seat in 2003, 2008 and 2013. She said although her focus would be to win all the 200 Assembly seats in the Rajasthan Assembly, special attention would be on 100 seats.

Raje exuded confidence that the BJP would form a majority government in the state once again.

She said BJP workers have created a situation that Congress’s PM-face Rahul Gandhi is forced to hold Assembly-level public meetings. “In the 2008 Assembly election, the BJP was eight seats away from making government in the state. The BJP had won 78 seats despite tough circumstances. Also, four seats were won by the JD(U) and the BJP dissidents. The Congress had won 96 seats,” the chief minister said.

“Of the eight seats, six seats were from Jhalawar and Baran districts. People of Jhalawar-Baran would not make any mistake this time and saffron would bloom in the state again,” she added.

Rajasthan will go to the polls on December 7.

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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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Rahul’s Mega Rajasthan Road Show From Vasundhara Raje’s Home Turf

The Congress was wiped out in most of Rajasthan in the last state elections in 2013 but managed to retain a toehold in the Dholpur-Bharatpur belt, winning four seats.

Rahul Gandhi’s mega road show in six constituencies in Rajasthan’s Dholpur and Bharatpur today is aimed at taking on Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on her home ground.

Ms Raje belongs to the former royal family of Dholpur and is popular as “Maharani Sahib” to voters there.

In the by-election to the assembly seat in April 2017, it was her focused campaign run from inside Dholpur Palace that managed to dislodge the Bahujan Samaj Party and win the Dholpur seat for the BJP.

But Dholpur in eastern Rajasthan, that borders Uttar Pradesh, is a fertile ground for the Congress.

The Congress was wiped out in most of Rajasthan in the last state elections in 2013 but managed to retain a toehold in the Dholpur-Bharatpur belt, winning four seats. The Congress had a higher vote share, of 34.5 per cent, than that of the BJP in Dholpur.

This is why, the party believes, Rahul Gandhi’s public outreach programme with the 163-km road show, can boost the Congress’ prospects in the upcoming elections. “We have a good chance in east Rajasthan. That is why Rahul Gandhi is here and we are taking on the Chief Minister not just in Dholpur but in all 200 seats,” said Rajsthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot.

There’s another reason why the Congress is starting its election campaign from this part of Rajasthan, and that is the Mayawati factor. The Dalit powerhouse announced last week that her party will fight the elections on its own. She gave a shock to the Congress last week, ruling out any alliance with the party in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. In the last elections, her party did better in Dholpur than it did in the rest of Rajasthan.

But the BJP is not entirely worried about the BSP.

“It is true that Mayawati impacts a certain vote bank. But the maximum she has ever got in Rajasthan has been 4 per cent of the vote share,” said Rajendra Rathore, a minister in the Vasundhara Raje cabinet.

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Modi in Rajasthan: PM accuses Congress of playing ‘vote bank politics’, lists Vasundhara Raje govt’s triumphs

Accusing the Congress of working for only one family and practising vote-bank politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the people to keep it away from power, breaking the state’s tradition of alternating power between the Congress and the BJP every five years.

Addressing a meeting marking the completion of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s month-long “journey for pride”, he said “while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not have the habit of lying as it works on the mantra of ‘sarva jana hitay‘ and ‘sarva jana sukhay’ (interest of all), the opposition is fond of doing vote-bank politics”.

“Those who do vote bank politics, they enjoy the issue of Hindu-Muslim, old-youth, forward-backward, this caste that caste and man and woman,” he said in his address to party activists in this religious town, where the BJP lost a prestigious Lok Sabha bye-election earlier this year.

“And this vote bank politics is not limited to elections, but it keeps on going for long.””Wherever they get the opportunity they try to divide the society,” Modi said about Congress adding that it was easy to divide but very hard to unite. “And the BJP believes in uniting the society,” he said.

He said that the result of the vote-bank politics was that the poor who voted for them keep on cursing them for five years.

Modi also said that Rajasthan has a tradition of alternating between Congress and BJP every five years and expressed confidence that this time that tradition would be broken.

“This time it should be changed. This time, let us keep Congress away from power in the state and elect the BJP,” he said.

“The BJP government in the state believes in accountability and thus we believe in presenting the report card of the works our governments has done, whether it’s Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh or Chhattisgarh.

“The BJP never hides its face while giving the report card to the people. But the Congress keeps on spreading lies,” Modi said.

“For 60 years the Congress followed the tradition of vote-bank politics,” he said.

Accusing Congress leaders and workers of worshipping one family, Modi said: “When I came here, (Chief Minister) Vasundhara Raje told me that the Congress leaders are not present in the Assembly, they do not raise any questions, they do not participate in debates.

“They do not do anything like this because they are busy serving one family, they are busy in worshipping one family.

“For them their high command is one family, but for the BJP our high command is seven and half crore people of the state. Should such forces be allowed again to come to power?” asked Modi and answered himself, “We don’t have to allow them to come to power again.”

Modi said that the Congress which failed in the government in the last 60 years also failed as the opposition.

“Earlier I had said that there should be a clever opposition, dedicated to people, they should have sensibility of people’s problem, keep a tab on the government’s works, participate in debate and give ideas to the government.

“But it was unfortunate that they have not only failed in the government but they have also failed as an opposition.

“They don’t do hard work, thus they have taken the help of lies and false propaganda. And when we dare them for a debate they flee,” he added.

Modi said that after 60 years, the country is in the right direction. “And they should not be given another chance,” he said.

Attacking Congress President Rahul Gandhi for his hug in Lok Sabha, Modi said, “There are people who think that they can change the course of their politics with a hug.”

Modi also asked the Congress what had stopped them from increasing the minimum support price (MSP) for the farmers.

“Why didn’t you increase the MSP for farmers? Who stopped you from doing so?

“We (BJP) did that. We increased the MSP of the farmers and now you (Congress) people have a problem with the Modi government that how I did this. And now as nothing is left for the Congress they are, every morning, manufacturing a new lie,” he said.

Modi also said that about Rs 62,000 crore will go to farmers every year after every farming season. “Congress never thought for farmers. Farmers have now insurance for crops like never before. So they never dare to debate over development. Why is the Congress not fighting election on facts?” he asked.

Highlighting the works of his government, Modi said that it brought relief for women against triple talaq. “We do not discriminate on the basis of religion. I thank Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan governments for death sentence against rapists. Now the justice has been fast-tracked. And the demons with such mentality should be scared,” he said.

He also said that now 30 percent women are working in government departments, which is not seen in many of the developed nation yet. “Our government also gave maternity leave for 26 weeks,” he said.

Hailing the Rajasthan chief minister for implementing the Central Government’s task of electrifying all villages in the state, he said, “When Vasundhara Raje came to power, about 13 lakh people were living in the 18th century (darkness). We had promised electrification for all. We provided electricity to 13 lakh people. Those who are yet to get electricity, the Rajasthan government and the Centre are working for them,” he said.

Modi also said that about two lakh hectare will have irrigation facilities through water from Chambal. The work on the technical survey in 13 districts are on and after that we shall start the work so that 40 percent people of the state will get sweet water to drink,” he said.

The 200-member Rajasthan assembly will go to polls on December 7, where the BJP is in power. The term of the Rajasthan Assembly expires on 20 January, 2019.

Slamming the Congress for questioning the second anniversary of the surgical strike as Parakram Parv, Modi said: “When last week I came to Rajasthan to pay tribute to the brave soldiers, they spread lies that I was going to sound the poll bugle.

“But I was here to celebrate the valour of our armed forces, I was here to celebrate the second anniversary of the surgical strike. “

He said that the surgical strike which was carried out in September 2016 showed the valour of our soldiers.

“But what has happened to Congress? Has politics pushed them to such a low that they belittle the surgical strike? They should feel ashamed for questioning the surgical strike,” he said.

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Vasundhara Raje Govt Builds 50 Holy Statues Ahead of Polls, Congress Cries Vote Bank Politics

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Be it Rajputs and Jats or the members of camel-herding and ST/SC communities, the BJP government in Rajasthan has come up with a way to please them all before the upcoming assembly elections. A many as 50 panoramas of local religious deities, noblemen, saints and warriors — from various communities — have been built across the state.

For instance, the members of Rajasthan’s Jat community are devotees of a local deity called Veer Tejaji, and Vasundhara Raje government has built a panorama of Tejaji at Kharnal Village in Nagour district. Kharnal is the birth place of Tejaji and the devotees go there to offer prayers. The western Rajasthan, known to be a Jat-dominated area, will play a key role in determining the fate of 40 seats in the upcoming election.

For the Scheduled Caste community, the government has built a panorama of Ramdev ji, also known as Ramdev Baba, in Ramdevra Village of Jaislmer District. Ramdev Baba has a huge following among the ST/SC community.
Same is the case with the camel-herding communities Raika and Rebari, which worship Pabuji Rathore. The folk-deity’s statue and panorama have been placed in Jodhpur’s Kolu Village. Pabuji is also popular among people from the Schedule Caste.

Several historic Rajput rulers and warriors from history have also found a place in the list. A panorama of Mughal-era ruler Amar Singh Rathore, who had defied the might of Shah Jahan at the royal court in Agra, has been placed in Nagour. Amar Singh Rathore is seen as an icon of bravery and freedom by the Rajputs, another major caste in the State. Every year, the Rajput community celebrates his birth day in Nagour.

Other panoramas include those of legendary saints such as Meera Bai, Sant Ravidas and Sant Bhagat Peepa.

Accusing the Raje government of vote bank politics, state’s Congress spokeperson Archana sharma said, “The Raje government is politicising these Panoramas as caste and community symbols for vote bank politics.” But Onkar Singh Lakhawat, chairman of Rajasthan’s Heritage Promotion Board, refuted these allegations, saying the BJP is only trying to pay tribute to the unsung heroes through the panoramas.

Since cow protection has become a major issue in Rajasthan due to cases of lynching in the past, the government has portrayed local deities Veer Tejaji and Pabuji Rathore as cow vigilantes who sacrificed their lives to protect the animal.

Muslim freedom fighters have also found place in the list, in what seems like a bid to give out the message of secularism. In Alwar, which was in the news recently for a lynching incident in name of saving cows, the Raje government has erected panoramas of Hasan Khan Mewati, a freedom fighter from the Meo community.

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