Smaller parties, 60 seats may queer pitch for Congress, BJP in Rajasthan

Jaipur: There are at least 68 seats in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, which can spell trouble for both Congress and BJP.

At least 78 smaller parties like Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), Bharatiya Adivasi Party (BAP), Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), CPI (M), Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), Azad Samaj Party (ASP) and at least 38 rebel Independents are in the fray, who have the ability to tilt the balance in favour or against any of these two big parties. The smaller parties and Independents have received around 20 per cent votes since the 1993 polls. These smaller parties pose themselves as alternatives to the BJP and Congress.

RLP, headed by maverick Jat leader Hanuman Beniwal, has this time fielded candidates in 81 seats, including himself from the Khinvsar constituency. Beniwal is presently the Lok Sabha MP from Nagaur.

RLP will give BJP and Congress a tough fight in Khinvsar, Merta, Bhopalgarh Parbatsar, Masuda, Baytoo, Asind, Chomu, Kolayat -Siwana constituencies.

Beniwal won the Khinvsar last three times — 2008, 2013 and 2018. Later when he became a MP from Nagaur, the seat was won by his brother Narayan Beniwal in a bypoll. RLP had contested 57 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections. They were able to corner a major vote share in at least 20 constituencies where their candidates came third. In 2018, RLP won three seats and had a vote share of at least 2.4 per cent.

RLP has joined hands with Uttar Pradesh-based Chandra Shekhar Azad’s ASP to brush off its tag of being a Jat-dominated party and one that only works for the Jat community. Although Dalits are already aligning with RLP as two of their MLAs belong to the community, they as an alliance want to assimilate other castes to come up as an alternative. They are targeting farmers as well and want to showcase their alliance which works for farmers, Dalits and youths.

Baytoo is another important constituency for RLP as their candidate, Ummeda Ram was the runner-up from here in the 2018 polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Baytoo to campaign for Balaram Mundh. In 2018, Congress, which won the seat, garnered 31.94 per cent votes share, RLP took 24.3 per cent vote share while BJP could manage a share of 21.8 per cent.

Bharatiya Adivasi Party, the breakaway group from Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), which won two seats in the last Assembly, has fielded 27 candidates this time. BTP, launched three months before the 2018 assembly elections, wrested two seats and could change voting trends in Dungarpur and Banswara districts. However, both BTP legislators, Chorasi MLA Rajkumar Roat and Sagwara MLA Ramprasad Dander, have quit the party and joined BAP.

BAP sources say they have put up 17 candidates in the Scheduled Areas and 10 in the general seats. And they seem to be strong in Chorasi, Sagwara, Aaspur, Ghatol, Dhariyawad, Pratapgarh Udaipur (Rural),Salumbar, Khedwara.

Priyanka Gandhi is visiting Sagwara today as it is the centre of nine seats, within the range of 40 km. BAP has put up one woman candidate, Bhavna Gujjar from Mandalgarh. Their main demand is one separate Adivasi state and water for the region as water from the Mahi river mostly flows into Gujarat. With no water, most people cannot pursue agriculture and migrate to Gujarat to work as labourers. Two years back, during the Zilla Pramukh polls, BAP won 13 seats while Congress and BJP had 14 seats together. Then Congress supported BJP and installed a BJP zilla pramukh, stalling a BAP takeover. Thus this election is crucial for BAP.

Mayawati’s BSP has put up 185 candidates this time. They had put up candidates in 190 seats in 2018 and garnered 4.03 per cent vote share. They had won six seats in 2018 and and became the third largest party after Congress and BJP. However, their influence is concentrated in eastern Rajasthan and SC-dominated constituencies. This time they seem strong in Dholpur, Bari, Hindaun, Udaipurwati, Sadulpur constituencies. Mayawati will be addressing eight rallies beginning today. She will be in Dholpur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Jhunjhunu and Nagaur.

CPI(M) will be fighting for 17 seats and they seem to be giving competition to the other two in at least four seats, namely, Dungargarh, Bhadra, Dhond and Dantaramgarh. CPI(M) had won two seats in the 2018 polls.

JJP, the Haryana-based party, led by its deputy chief minister Dushyant Chautala, has 20 candidates in the fray and is likely to put up a strong show in Fatehpur, Suratgarh, and Neem Ka Thana, where they have fielded Raghubir Singh Tanwar, a BJP rebel.

In addition, there are Independent candidates who can be troublesome for the two big parties in at least 38 seats, like Chandrabhan Singh Aakya in Chittorgarh, who is the sitting BJP MLA and was denied a ticket to accommodate Narpat Singh Rajvi, son-in-law of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who in turn was replaced by Diya Kumari , the Jaipur royal scion in Vidyadhar Nagar constituency.