Rajasthan polls: Congress banks on old gaurds

Within ten months from the assembly polls in Rajasthan, the ruling Congress and BJP are once again battling against each other for the upcoming bypolls for two assembly seats.

For the upcoming bypolls while the Congress puts its trust on the old guard. The opposition party BJP banks on its alliance partner RLP and Congress rebel candidate.

The Congress nominated Rita Chaudhary to contest a by-election to the Mandawa constituency against Bharatiya Janata Party's Sushila Seegda, a former Congress leader who joined the BJP just one week ago after she was suspended from Congress a few months ago. Seegda, 54, is the pradhan at Jhunjhunu panchayat Samiti, has been Zila Parishad pradhan thrice and is also the daughter-in-law of veteran Congress leader Brijlal Seegda.

Similarly, for the Khinvsar seat in Nagaur, the Congress has nominated Harendra Mirdha against Narayan Beniwal of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), the alliance partner of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state. The former cabinet minister Harendra Mirdha is also an All India Congress Committee secretary. Whereas Narayan Beniwal is the brother of Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal also the patron of RLP.

"The party workers are feeling energised with bypolls coming up. But the internal rift within the party is creating a divide", a senior Congress leader while hinting towards CM Ashok Gehlot and Deputy CM Sachin Pilot told DH. According to the party insiders, the results in the bypolls will be also a measuring rod to evaluate the performance of CM Ashok Gehlot and Deputy CM Sachin Pilot.

The two seats were vacated after Khivsar MLA Beniwal and Mandawa's BJP MLA Narendra Kumar were elected from Nagaur and Jhujhunu Lok Sabha seats, respectively. The elections will be held on October 21.

In 200 seat Rajasthan assembly, at present, it has 198 sitting MLAs. Two seats got vacant after 2 MLAs got elected as Member Parliament. The tally goes like this Congress (100) + alliance (1 RLD) have 101 seats. The opposition BJP has 73 seats. The BSP had 6 seats but have now supported Congress. Whereas the other parties have (RLTP 2 seats), (BTP, 2 seats), (CPM, 2 seats) and there are 13 Independent MLAs, twelve of which support the ruling Congress.