Congress announced its candidates late on Wednesday night for the by-elections on seven seats in Rajasthan to be held on November 13. The party has nominated Amit Ola from Jhunjhunu, Aryan Zubair from Ramgarh, DD Bairwa from Dausa, KC Meena from Deoli-Uniyara, Dr Ratan Chaudhary from Khinvsar, Reshma Meena from Salumbhar, and Mahesh Roat from Chaurasi. Since the BJP has already announced its candidates for six seats except Chaurasi, the faces of both parties have been decided on six seats. There is a triangular contest on three of these seats.
There is a direct contest between the BJP and Congress in Salumbhar, Ramgarh, Deoli-Uniyara, and Dausa, while in Jhunjhunu, Chaurasi, and Khinvsar, it is triangular due to the candidates of different parties being fielded. Out of the 7 candidates declared by the Congress, six will contest the Assembly elections for the first time. The party has given tickets to the families of leaders on Ramgarh and Jhunjhunu seats. From Jhunjhunu, the party has fielded Amit Ola, the son of the current MP from Jhunjhunu, Brijendra Ola, while from Ramgarh, it has fielded Aryan Zuber, the son of former MLA Zuber Khan.
By-elections are going to be held for seven seats in Rajasthan, which include Jhunjhunu, Ramgarh, Dausa, Khinvsar, Deoli Uniara, Salumber, and Chaurasi seats. The nomination process for the by-election is going on, and the last date for filing nominations is October 25. Voting will be held on November 13, and the counting of votes will be done on November 23.
The Congress is going all alone in this by polls and has thus fielded its candidate from the Khinvsar seat by not allying with Hanuman Beniwal’s party, RLP. Congress has fielded Sawai Singh Chaudhary’s wife Ratan Chaudhary as its candidate for the Khinvsar seat. It may be noted that Sawai Singh had joined the BJP during the 2023 Assembly elections, but after the Congress gave a ticket to his wife Ratan in the by-election, Chaudhary resigned from the BJP late on Wednesday night.
It is worth mentioning here that, playing the sympathy card, the BJP has fielded former MLA Late Amritlal Meena’s wife from Salumbhar, while Congress has played the sympathy card by giving a ticket to Aryan Khan, son of late MLA Zuber Khan from Ramgarh. Both these seats fell vacant due to the deaths of MLAs. During the by-elections held during Ashok Gehlot’s rule, Congress had given tickets to people from the families of late MLAs, and all of them had won.
ERCP is a major issue
The BJP will enter the fray with a strategy of development wherein the main agenda of development is the ERCP-PKC and Yamuna Water Agreement. Both these schemes will fulfil the drinking water and irrigation needs of a large area of the state. CM Bhajan Lal Sharma has done a lot of work in this direction after becoming the CM and in the current by-elections, four assembly seats are directly affected due to ERCP-PKC and Yamuna Water Agreement. These include Dausa, Ramgarh, and Deoli Uniara, as well as the Jhunjhunu seat. BJP wants to get votes based on schemes. According to sources, in the coming days, PM Modi can lay the foundation stone of the Dadiya village ERCP project near Jaipur.
Dausa is said to be the political centre of ERCP politics and BJP is luring voters by calling ERCP-PKC a new chapter of development in the by-elections. It is noteworthy that this scheme will quench the thirst of 13 districts of eastern Rajasthan. Additionally, these schemes are also influencing the politics here, as ERCP is expected to create an additional command area of 2 lakh hectares and provide irrigation to 4.31 lakh hectares of area.
The BJP wants to earn votes based on the work of the Bhajan Lal government. Jhunjhunu is also an important centre of the Yamuna water project in Shekhawati, and there is also a by-election in Jhunjhunu. An MoU was signed between the Central Government, Haryana and Rajasthan Government in February. The pace slowed down due to elections in Haryana. Now it is beneficial for the BJP government of Rajasthan that the BJP government was formed in Haryana as well.
After the Congress announced its list, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) too announced its candidate for the by-election on the Khinvsar assembly seat. Kanika Beniwal, wife of Nagaur MP Hanuman Beniwal, has been made the candidate from here.
Reason for holding by-polls on 7 seats
Out of the 7 seats in the state where by-elections are going to be held, BJP had only Amritlal Meena as MLA from Salumbhar seat; out of the remaining 6 seats, 4 were with Congress, one seat with Bharatiya Adivasi Party and 1 with RLP. Congress had MLAs on Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniyara, and Ramgarh seats. Elections are being held on these seats again within 11 months of the assembly elections held in 2023 as of these, 5 seats are vacant due to MLAs becoming MPs and two seats are vacant due to the death of MLAs.
BJP-Cong prestige at stake
The prestige of both the Bhajan Lal Sharma government and the Opposition is at stake in these by-elections. The victory and defeat of the by-elections will also determine the future political direction of the state. Based on the results of the by-elections, changes can be seen in the government and also Congress.
The results will also be seen as the first test of the work of the BJP government in the state. Whatever results come on these seats will be presented as the public’s seal on the government’s work. If the results come in BJP’s favour, then BJP will present it as the government’s success. If the results are not favourable, then the Opposition will become more aggressive, and the government will have to face huge difficulties on the perception front.
