BJP scripted history in Rajasthan by limiting the ruling Congress to zero in the Lok Sabha elections, thereby making a clean sweep in state
Agnimaa
Jaipur: It’s official! Lotus in Rajasthan has boomed with all its might. The BJP scripted history in the state by limiting the ruling government to zero in Lok Sabha elections, thereby making a clean sweep in state.
Many records have been smashed in Rajasthan with this historical win. Firstly, the party has successfully scaled the earlier trends in the state where ruling governments got an edge and led in Parliamentary elections. This time, in Rajasthan, the ruling government, which won Assembly elections just six months back, has been flattened to the ground to bite the dust.
Secondly, BJP has also made a record of becoming the only party in the state to make a clean sweep for the second time in succession after 67 years. In the 2014 polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party had won all seats too. Also, it is for the first time that 21 out of 25 MPs have won by a margin of over two lakh votes. In fact, on three seats, the margin has been around five lakh votes.
In Bhilwara, Subhash Bahariya won by a record margin of 6.12 lakh votes and Jaipur princess won by over 5.51 lakh votes from Rajsamand. Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh won by a margin of 4.53 lakh votes.
The most surprising element of this election is the defeat of Chief Minister Ashot Gehlot’s son, Vaibhav Gehlot, from Jodhpur seat who was a debut face in this Lok Sabha election.
Despite his father Ashok Gehlot working all ways and means in Jodhpur to ensure his win, Vaibhav lost badly to sitting MP and Union minister of State Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by 2,74,440 votes which has left the entire shocked and surprised it being the seat of Ashok Gehlot for around last 40 years.
According to sources, Gehlot has camped in Jodhpur for 10 days and made all his efforts to see his son’s rise. He sent personal messages to voters requesting them to vote for Vaibhav, he made door to door campaigning under scorching sun appealing for his son’s future, when he was tired, he got into an auto to get into the thin lanes of Jodhpur and appealed to masses to vote for his son.
However, none of his pleas worked and people voted for Shekhawat. The biggest credit for the defeat of Vaibhav goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s rally held here where Modi was quite confident to announce, “Chief Minister knows that he is losing all seats of Rajasthan and therefore is camping in Jodhpur to ensure at least his son wins.”
Shri Modi in Jaipur rally was again vocal to reiterate his statement, “Jo apne bete ko nahin bacha sakte, woh desh ko kya bachayenge’ (those who can’t even save their own from defeat, how can they save the nation), he asked. Hence, Jodhpur elections were projected as PM Vs CM and people preferred PM than CM on this high stake seat.
The other significant seat in the desert state was Barmer where BJP fielded a farmer leader Kailash Chowdhary against the influential Manvendra Singh, son of BJP veteran Jaswant Singh. Manvendra lost by over 323808 votes. He had switched camp and joined Congress before Assembly elections in 2018. He was fielded against the former chief minister Vasundhara Raje from Jhalawad and had to face a big defeat. Now, this is second defeat after joining Congress camp.
The other impressive victory in the state was of the Union minister of state and sitting MP of Jaipur Rural Rajyawardhan Singh Rathore who won by a record margin 393171 defeating his rival Krishna Poonia who is Congress MLA from Jaipur Rural. BJP also managed to get an impressive vote per cent of 58.44% while Congress got 34.27 per cent. The other interesting seat in Rajasthan was Nagaur where BJP formed an alliance with Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) and fielded Hanuman Beniwal. He won elections by a margin of over 1.81 lakh votes.
This was the best example of social engineering where Beniwal helped the party get Jat votes not only in Nagaur against influential Congress’s candidate Jyoti Mirdha but also helped the party to get mileage in Barmer and Jodhpur. Also, the other significant factor was bringing in Gujjar community on board. Their leader Kirori Singh Bainsla was inducted into the party.
Rajasthan’s Jat population in Rajasthan counts to around 12 per cent while Gujjars are around 9 per cent which makes for around 84,00,000 Jats and 63,00,000 Gujjars in the state. Now, with these new equations and tie-ups, the party enjoyed significant support of influential Jat and Gujjar communities in Lok Sabha elections. Beniwal helped BJP getting Jat voters in Nagaur, Barmer, Bikaner, Sikar and Jodhpur while Ghar Wapasi of Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla helped BJP in Gujjar dominated areas including Sawai Madhavpur and other surrounding areas. The party has been lacking a strong Gujjar leader in the eastern belt of Rajasthan earlier and this lacuna was plugged in with this social engineering.
In the Assembly elections, state Congress chief and Deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot, who is a Gujjar, swung the community’s votes to the Congress. Now with Bainsla’s entry, the BJP got a boost on the Gujjar-dominated seats as he has had Bainsla a strong influence on Gujjar votes in around a dozen districts including Dausa, Karauli, Ajmer, Bharatpur, Tonk-Sawai Madhopur and Dholpur.
Last but not the least was the groundwork of booth workers and the RSS teams which read the pulse of voters and brought them out of their houses to vote in big numbers. In the first phase of polling held on April 29 for 13 seats, 68.22 per cent voting was recorded while in the second phase on May 6, 63.78 per cent voting was registered on 12 seats. Overall 66.12 per cent voting was recorded which was the highest voter turnout in the last 67 years. In 2014, 63.10 per cent voting was recorded. The RSS workers were quite active in Western Rajasthan where the state witnessed over 70% polling in some belts. Even the people of this belt supported them due to their social work being done since last many years and they came in large number to vote.
Many times, Ashok Gehlot, who aggrieved to see its groundwork, came out open to attack the RSS workers calling them to merge with the BJP and play politics on the front foot. However, voters did not lend their ears to the CM as they had silently decided to bring Namo as their Prime Minister once again. “Who hamara Pilot wapas layaa, Balakot mein air strike karwaya, Pakistan ko chup karwaya, hamara ghar banwaya, isliye hum sab logon ne PM ke liye Modi ke liye hi batan dabaya,” says a local Labya Singh in Fulera.
