Jaipur
Congress is pulling out all the stops to change Rajasthan’s history of voting out the incumbent government. Neither there is any anti-incumbency against Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who is Congress’ face in the state, nor are there any charges against his government. Growing popularity of the Gehlot government is a cause of concern for the BJP.
CM Gehlot has been in campaign mode over the last six months, while the saffron party is still in the process of finalising its strategy. The only challenge for Gehlot is ticket allocation. In fact, there are 50 seats in Rajasthan where BJP is normally invincible. With the strong central leadership, BJP’s ticket distribution is likely to be a smooth affair.
On the contrary, there is a tight competition in Congress for tickets. Congress claims that it will give tickets to only strong candidates, but this is not the practice in the party. The party witnesses massive fights among ticket-seekers from various factions. Rajasthan PCC chief Govind Singh Dotasra and CM Gehlot put up a show of unity during the election campaign over the past few weeks. In view of this, Dotasra is unlikely to pressurise Gehlot to give tickets to his loyalists. CWC members such as Sachin Pilot, Jitendra Singh and Harish Chaudhary will definitely put pressure on Gehlot seeking tickets for their supporters. Jintendra Singh is supposed to be more powerful than Sachin and Harish. Jitendra Singh is close to the Gandhi family and CM Gehlot. The party always preferred Singh’s supporters from Alwar seats. Jintendra Singh is himself planning to contest the polls this time. However, there won’t be any tussle on his candidature.
The number of ticket-seekers from Sachin’s camp is huge. Last time, the party faced a tough time striking a balance between Gehlot and Pilot camps during ticket allocation. If the high command had projected Gehlot as CM candidate in 2018, the scene would have been different in Rajasthan. The party would have secured a comfortable majority then.
Congress president Mallikarjuna Kharge is making all possible efforts to avoid any dispute in Rajasthan. He has therefore sent observers to make ticket distribution a smooth affair in Rajasthan. But sending so many leaders for analysis of just one seat may add to problems. Harish Chaudhary is another powerful leader in the state Congress. Gehlot brought him to politics. Chaudhary consolidated his network in Delhi due to close proximity with Rahul Gandhi. He speaks against his government from time to time to assert himself. He seems to be interested in central politics as he has preferred to remain in CWC as in-charge. He is unlikely to contest polls. However, he will intervene in ticket allocation processes. Zubair Khan has confined himself within his own assembly seat, even though he has been active at the national level for a long time. CWC member Mohan Prakash normally stays away from all these exercises. Tribal leader Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya is close to Gehlot. He has got a berth in CWC because of being close to the CM. He is interested in getting a ticket for himself only. Dheeraj Gurjar can also recommend his supporters using his position in the team of Priyanka at one point of time.
Another influential name is that of Assembly speaker C.P. Joshi. The names recommended by Joshi will be considered positively, given his record of conducting the House in a smooth manner. In other words, there is good coordination among Gehlot, Jitendra Singh and CP Joshi. If only these three leaders finalise tickets, the party will be able to announce candidates quite early. Gehlot wants to release the list of key names as early as possible. Another challenge is how to drop sitting MLAs. Surveys suggest there is tremendous public anger against more than half a dozen sitting Congress MLAs and ministers. If the party does not drop them, the way ahead will be difficult.