NEW DELHI
Manvendra Singh Jasol, son of Jaswant Singh, has changed his constituency to Siwana ahead of Assembly elections in Rajasthan. In the last Assembly elections, he contested against then-CM Vasundhara Raje for the Jhalrapatan seat on the Congress symbol, where he lost by a huge margin of 43,980 votes. Jasol is a unique politician who shifted to Congress from the BJP, which is hard to see in northern India, where strong Congress leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and many such leaders have shifted towards the saffron party. Jasol last won from the Siv constituency on a BJP ticket in the 2013 Rajasthan Assembly elections. However, he was expelled from the BJP in 2014 due to his campaigning against BJP candidate Sona Ram. His father, Jaswant Singh, contested as an independent candidate, but he lost to BJP candidate Sona Ram by a margin of 87,461 votes. He joined Congress in 2018 and contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2019 as a congress candidate, but lost to BJP candidate Kailash Choudhary. Jasol wanted to contest from either Jaisalmer or Sheo because these were the constituencies where he had a lead during the 2019 general elections, which could have made it easy for him to win. Siwana has been won by the BJP for three consecutive terms. In the 2018 elections, BJP candidate Hameer Singh defeated independent candidate Balram by a small margin of 957 votes. However, in the 2013 Assembly elections, Singh defeated Congress’ Mehant Nirmaldas with a margin of 20,701 votes. The BJP has maintained consistency by fielding Singh from Siwana, and he has been again fielded by the saffron party. However, Congress has constantly changed candidates from this seat, and now Jasol is the third Congress candidate against Singh. Siwana has a total of 2,47,203 votes, out of which 1,31,363 are male voters and 1,15,840 are female candidates. A Congress rebel candidate has helped the BJP win the election for this seat, and this time also Jasol may face Congress rebel Sunil Parihar, who is contesting independent. In this scenario, the BJP will be successful in retaining this seat for the fourth time.
Like Rajasthan, which has a pattern of an alternative government every five years, the same pattern has been seen in Barmer district since 1993. Barmer had seven Assembly seats after delimitation in 2008 and six seats before delimitation. When the BJP came to power in 2003, it won four seats, while one went to Congress. But the tables turned in 2008 when Congress returned to power and won six seats, while the BJP managed just one. This pattern was repeated in subsequent elections too, where the party that comes to power wins six seats, leaving just one for the rival party.
Pilibanga
The Pilibanga constituency comes under the Ganganagar parliamentary constituency and lies in the Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan. During the last Assembly elections in 2018, Dharmendra Kumar of the BJP won this seat with a margin of 278 votes, defeating Congress’ Vinod Kumar in a very close contest. The BJP is winning this seat for two consecutive terms, and during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections too, the BJP is way ahead of Congress in this seat. The BJP’s Sihal Chand secured 61.97% of votes, while the Congress candidate could secure only 34.4% of votes. In the 2013 elections, the BJP won this seat, and Dropati became MLA, defeating Congress’s Vinod Kumar by a margin of 10,198 votes. This time also, there is a strong contest for this seat, as both the BJP and Congress have retained their candidates. Sitting MLA Dharmendra Singh is the BJP’s candidate, while Congress has again trusted Vinod Kumar for this seat. Pilibanga has a total of 2,67,398 voters, and the contest for this seat is very close.