lok-sabha-elections

Updated: Apr 29, 2019 06:27 IST

Rajasthan will go to polls for the first time in the ongoing seven-phase general elections, with 13 of its 25 Lok Sabha seats up for grabs on Monday.

The high-profile seats of Barmer, Nagaur, Jodhpur and Rajsamand will be among the parliamentary constituencies that will vote in the fourth phase of the 17th general election.

In Barmer, the Congress has fielded Bharatiya Janata Party founder-member and former Union minister Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh. Manvendra was the sitting MLA from Sheo assembly constituency in Barmer district, and joined the Congress prior to the assembly elections held in the state in December 2018.

He was fielded as the Congress candidate from Jhalarapatan assembly constituency, the home turf of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, but lost. The Congress has now fielded Manvendra as its Lok Sabha candidate from Barmer, while BJP had fielded former MLA from Baytoo, Kailash Choudhary.

Jodhpur will witness a prestige fight between chief minister Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav, who will make his electoral debut, pitted against Union minister and sitting MP Gajendra Shekhawat. Vaibhav Gehlot is not the only high-profile politician son in the electoral fray. In Jhalawar-Baran, former chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh will contest against Congress’s Pramod Sharma. Singh has been Jhalawar-Baran MP since 2004.

A member of the erstwhile royal family of Jaipur and former BJP MLA from Sawai Madhopur, Diya Kumari, has been fielded from Rajsamand. Congress has fielded Devkinandan Gurjar.

The BJP, which won all 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan in 2014, suffered losses in the recent assembly elections. While the party may be able to put that down to anti-incumbency — the state usually alternates between the two national parties — they will be banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s work for electoral gains this time.

In turn, the Congress, hot on the heels of the assembly election win, will look to reap dividends from its poll promise of Nyay, a minimum income guarantee scheme for the bottom 20% of the poor in the country, and the 33% reservation for women in government jobs .

Political analyst Narayan Bareth said both the BJP and Congress waged an aggressive campaign in the state. “The BJP has tried to conduct the Lok Sabha campaign till now along the lines of the presidential election in the US. It is campaigning on three issues — candidate is immaterial, [vote for] Narendra Modi; Congress’s lack of work in the last 70 years; and nationalism. (In turn) Congress (has used) traditional and modern ways of campaigning.”