The Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha seat is all set to witness a very interesting contest between two Olympians — sitting BJP MP Union Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Congress’ Krishna Poonia. An equally keen contest is on the cards in the neighbouring Bharatpur, a stronghold of Jats, between two Dalits — a retired bureaucrat and a daughter-in-law of three times BJP MP Gangaram Koli. Both the seats will go to polls on Monday.
While Rathore is a Rajput and an Olympic gold medalist, Poonia is a Jat from Haryana and married in Rajasthan. She is also a sitting MLA and international gold medal-winner in discus throw and three times Olympic participant.
In 2014 Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha polls, Rathore defeated Congress veteran CP Joshi by over three lakh votes. But in the November 2018 Assembly elections for the eight Assembly seats in this Lok Sabha constituency, four were bagged by the Congress, three by the BJP and one by an Independent.
Punia has been working on a successful caste equation by banking on the support of Jats, and a combination of Ahirs (Yadavs), Dalit and Muslim. Faced with such challenging scenario, Rathore is relying on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“While Modi magic can work on youths and middle class, a large section of voters here are upset with Rathore, claiming that he confined himself to inaugurating projects and remaining inaccessible. But Poonia worked at grassroots with her husband (athlete Virender Poonia) and thus has a chance this time,” said Sukhbir Chauhan of village Jomwar Ramgarh.
Given the caste equation of Bharatpur Lok Sabha seat, Congress candidate Abhijit Kumar Jatav, a retired bureaucrat, seems to have an edge over BJP’s Ranjeeta Koli. In the recent Assembly elections, the Congress and its alliance partner RLD won six of the eight Assembly seats in Bharatpur the Parliamentary constituency. While the BSP bagged the remaining two seats, the BJP failed to even open its account. Ranjeeta will also have to face the backlash from the supporters of sitting party MP Bahadur Singh Koli, who was denied the ticket.
Though the Congress has an upper hand in Bharatpur, it has to guard against BSP’s Suraj Jatav. The Congress is working hard to end the enmity between Jatavs and the Jats arisen in the 1992 Kumher massacre when Jats set ablaze more than 100 houses of Jatavs. Erstwhile ruler of Bharatpur and a Minister in the Ashok Gehlot Government, Vishvendra Singh, has been deputed by the party to win over Jats for the purpose.
Once represented by tall leaders of the Congress such as Natwar Singh, Rajesh Pilot, Raj Bahadur and Vishvendra Singh, the Jat Kingdom was declared a reserved constituency for SC in 2008 delimitation. The Congress won in 2009, but lost to the BJP in 2014 in the heat of Modi wave.