The Hindu : Tough contest in Hadoti region

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 30, 2003

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Tough contest in Hadoti region

By Mohammed Iqbal

KOTA NOV. 29. The Hadoti region covering four districts in south-east Rajasthan, once considered the bastion of the BJP, had sent 14 Congress candidates to the Assembly out of the 18 seats during the 1998 elections. Though the ruling Congress maintains that edge, the landslide victory may not be repeated this time.

The veteran leaders of both the Congress and the BJP in the fray are facing a challenge not only from each other, but also from a number of rebels. The stakes are high for the Tourism Minister, Shanti Dhariwal, Agricultural Marketing Minister, Ramkishan Verma, Minister of State, Ramgopal Bairwa, and the BJP's veteran leader, Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi.

Jhalrapatan constituency falling in the region is evidently in the headlines because of the BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate, Vasundhara Raje, contesting against Rama Pilot of Congress. However, Ms. Raje's presence alone would not be helpful to other BJP candidates in Jhalawar district, as each of them is confronted with strong contenders.

Ms. Raje herself is locked in a contest that has been brought from the previous one-sided show to an equal footing with the entry of Ms. Pilot, Member of Parliament from Dausa and widow of Congress leader Rajesh Pilot. Ms. Pilot's campaign has injected enthusiasm among the Congress voters and thrown a serious challenge to Ms. Raje.

BJP fields novice

The BJP's decision to field a novice, Om Birla, against the veteran Congress leader, Mr. Dhariwal, from Kota city was earlier perceived as acceptance of defeat by the party even before the battle had started. The BJP has made an all-out attempt to change this perception with the polling day coming nearer in the industrial hub of Hadoti region.

Mr. Birla, national vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, is contesting an Assembly seat for the first time and has several roadblocks ahead. He has sought support from various communities, such as Sindhi, Rajput, Vijayawargiya, Agrawal, etc., by presiding over meetings in their areas. The BJP activists allege that Mr. Dhariwal had earlier stagemanaged such support by distributing doles.

The senior BJP leader, Mr. Chaturvedi, who had lost to Mr. Dhariwal in Kota in the previous Assembly elections, has vacated the turf this time and switched over to the nearby Digod constituency. While Congress claims that Mr. Chaturvedi has run away for fear of another ``humiliating defeat'', the local BJP leaders stoutly defend the party's last-minute decision to shift him.

``It is the party's strategy at the State level to introduce new faces in the electoral battle. Mr. Chaturvedi's previous defeat has nothing to do with it,'' says Ravindra Solanki, city BJP general secretary. But the Congress activists do not seem to be convinced by the argument. The allegations of corruption against Mr. Dhariwal, especially during his tenure as the Urban Development Minister, fly thick, but the BJP is not able to cite specific instances. As both the parties look for substantial issues against each other, the development-related matters seem to have occupied the centrestage and caught the attention of the electorate.

Mr. Dhariwal has promised that he would work during the next five years to meet the city's needs, establish new industries and develop the entire Hadoti region as a major tourist centre, which in turn would solve the problem of unemployment.

In Ramganjmandi, Mr. Verma of Congress is pitted against the BJP's district president, Prahlad Gunjal, who is a first-timer. Mr. Gunjal is banking on his rapport with the party workers and the local people's grievances. Both the candidates are eyeing on the support from Gujjars, who have a sizable population in the constituency.

The predominance of development-related issues in the election campaign in all the four districts of Hadoti — Kota, Jhalawar, Baran and Bundi — has led to the BJP evading its favourite theme of Hindutva. Even though no strong wave in favour of Congress is visible, the contests between stalwarts, first-timers and rebels of both the parties have set the stage for an intriguing electoral battle in the region.

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