Rajasthan Assembly Elections 2018: Lotus Continues to Woo Voters

“Lathi nahin naukriyan doongi; this was what our Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje promised during her opposition stint while speaking as a leader of Opposition in Assembly in 2013.

Now, where are the jobs? asks Gurudas Singh who is a rickshaw puller in Bharatpur, Rajasthan.

Every day he leaves his home at 7 to take tourists on a ride to Bharatpur Birds sanctuary. He wanted jobs for his children. However, now, he has brought them into the same profession who have got a registered licence of taking tourists to this sanctuary.

Although the promises made to us were unfulfilled by the BJP, we have decided to vote for the BJP for we need to make a choice; at least, we know Raje will be our leader again who has done a lot in other segments for poor. She launched Bhamashah; made our women king of the house; brought so many schemes for our daughters; hence at this point, we can’t trust any other party. None of the parties has any clarity in the policies. So, we shall go with the BJP.

As Rajasthan goes for the poll on December 7, there seems to be a cut-to-cut fight between two major parties, the BJP and the Congress.

The former is seeking votes on the name of development, while the latter is yet to declare its manifesto with explicit promises.

Meanwhile, the voters are seriously contemplating on the issue as to who should be their Chief Minister.

While speaking to Organiser, a gau sevak, Vinod Singh says, “There used to be a lot of cow smuggling earlier during Congress rule; however, BJP managed to put police chowkis in place and hence action was taken against cow smugglers. More before, the confidence of criminals was quite high, and they were not at all afraid of law and order. Although much more needs to be done to stop such a crime, we have decided to vote for Lotus as the party cares for our mother-the holy cow, he adds.

Going with the sentiments of these voters, it seems as if the BJP is managing to put its best foot forward, taking a decent lead on all vital parameters.

At the first stage, the party did lead from the front to declare its Chief Ministerial face at a time when its rival Congress members were busy in slugfest and leg pulling due to internal factions.

Further, at the next stage, the BJP yet again notched the first rank in releasing its list of candidates finalised for elections on 200 seats while the Congress presented a poor show marred with internal clashes for the sake of getting a ticket.

All this left the Congress party red-faced in front of the voters while the BJP, cautiously and confidently, gained points at each stage winning the trust of the voters.

Meanwhile, this desert state is quite famous for transferring its power in the hands of alternate parties; one time the Congress and next time the BJP. Both the parties take a turn in forming their governments.

However, this time, the party, it seems, is determined to change the trend and form its government to continue scripting the development story in Rajasthan.

“The BJP has been working to earn the trust of masses on the grounds of development projects it has introduced in five years while the Congress has lacked a clear vision, policy and leadership. BJP has been leading on all parameters be it declaring its CM candidate, or its candidates’ list in time; however Congress has emerged fragmented in the State with no clear policy, vision and leadership, says Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, convenor of election management committee in Rajasthan who also holds the position of Union Minister of State.

Sharing his opinion as to which party has chances to emerge out a winner, he says, “The party who makes maximum mistakes in the last month to the election shall be a loser.”

Meanwhile, by now, it’s candid clear as to which party is fumbling and tumbling on every parameter. It’s the Congress which could not declare its CM face in the State, they also failed to release their candidates’ list on time and further they also failed to manage their candidates who could not get tickets. The left out candidates could be seen protesting out loud on roads, damaging public property and insulting their senior leaders. So how can they manage to garner votes as each chaos of theirs is out in public,” he added.

One and all know the fractions between former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot.

Meanwhile, the BJP stands united as one entity under the vision and guidance of central leadership. Eventually, it has come out stronger in the last few months which shall help it garner the trust of voters.

Union Minister of HRD Prakash Javadekar, who is now election in-charge for Rajasthan, has ensured that the BJP connects with its grassroots workers to provide the party connects with masses, both on the rural and urban map.

Recently, the party organised a Booth Mahasampark Abhiyaan from November 2-4. It helped BJP worker reach around 70 lakh families via 7,088 shakti Kendra. The party worked as a team with the significant support of Javadekar. CM Vasundhara Raje Scindia, party workers and other notable leaders who were part of the drive.

After that, there was karyakarta parivar milan and many alike programmes which helped party connect with people who have a similar ideology as that of the party’s.

All these initiatives have helped party workers fight anti-incumbency factor which appeared after the by-polls held in February.

Meanwhile, Shekhawat is confident that the BJP shall benefit with the favouritism and cash for ticket scam hitting the Congress which has also come out open in front of public now. “Further the tall promises made by Congress president Rahul Gandhi of not giving any ticket to parachute candidates has fallen flat on grounds. So many candidates have been given parachute tickets which have left the party further divided,” he opines.

Shekhawat says, “The ruling government in the State has waived off loans of 28 lakh farmers; Mukhyamantri Jal Swavlamban Yojana has made a mass movement in the State, and it has brought surprising results, roads stretching to 6,300 km have been developed in villages under Grameen Gaurav Path. Overall 28,000 km roads have been made in the State. Also, national highways extending to 7768 km were developed here, he added.

The women in the family have been made the head of the family under Bhamashah scheme launched by BJP which also helped many poor get treated in best of the hospital of the state. Also, there are many other ambitious schemes launched in the State which helped poor stand out strong, he adds.

Meanwhile Avinash Rai Khanna, the BJP national vice-president and state in charge of state party affairs, says, “At a time when Congress leaders were showing a shabby tale of infighting during their ticket finalisation meeting in Delhi, the BJP booth workers were working sincerely at booth level to connect with voters and beneficiaries to ensure they win their trust.”

According to him, voters have already seen the fragmented face of Congress leaders who have been fighting continuously with just one aim-to get ticket at any cost.

Agreeing with the views presented by Shekhawat that the Congress stands as a visionless, headless and leaderless party deprived of any clear policy, he says, “the BJP has a clean image and has always stood with voters with development as its sole agenda. The people of the State hence shall vote for BJP ensuring Lotus blooms again in the State breaking the much-hyped trend of one government rule for one tenure and alternate government ruling the other mandate. The Rajasthan Assembly election in 2018 is all set to break this earlier set tradition in the State”.

Quoting reasons behind his confidence, he says that the party has well-defined 51,000 booths and a team of 20 workers has been deputed at each booth. “Besides, 10 lakh workers, we also have 53 lakh identified workers and over 2.20 crore beneficiaries in the state who are sure to choose Lotus over any other symbol in the coming elections.

We have defined a regular system of contacting voters. Also, we fully trust our party workers who have pledged to take the State on development track and hence are ensuring that people get aware of the works undertaken by them, he says.

We will ensure that we never leave a point that the BJP is weak anywhere, he adds with a smile reflecting exuberance and confidence of a winner.

Blurb :

One and all know the fractions between former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee president Sachin Pilot. Meanwhile, the BJP stands united as one entity under the vision and guidance of central leadership

Quote :

“The BJP has been working to earn the trust of masses on the grounds of development projects it has introduced in the five years, while the Congress has lacked a clear vision, policy and leadership. BJP has been leading on all the parameters be it declaring its CM candidate, or its candidates list in time”

— Gajender Singh Shekhawat, convener of election management committee, Rajasthan