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Alwar MLA may join Congress

ALWAR: The decision of the scion of the erstwhile royal family and sitting MLA, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, to keep off the Rajasthan Assembly elections despite having won the previous polls in 2003 by a huge margin of 27,000 votes has led to widespread speculation here that he is going to join the “youth brigade” of the Congress in New Delhi after the next Lok Sabha elections.

The prestigious seat in north-eastern part of the desert State – falling in the National Capital Region – presents an unexciting scenario of Vishwa Hindu Parishad district president Banwarilal Singhal locked in the electoral battle as the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate against Narendra Sharma of Congress.

In the lacklustre electioneering in all the 11 Rajasthan Assembly segments in Alwar district, the only trend visible is that of voters’ indifference in the face of failure of major political parties to offer solutions to scarcity of drinking water, shortage of power and haphazard development of the region.

The Congress district unit has presented Jitendra Singh as the party’s young face who must represent the constituency in the Parliament. “Our delegation met Rahul Gandhi to highlight the qualities of Mr. Singh to become an MP. Mr. Gandhi was receptive to the suggestion for including him in his team,” District Congress Committee vice-president Surendra Mathur told The Hindu.

Congress leaders accuse the BJP-led government in the State of totally ignoring Alwar district because of the majority of the Assembly seats represented by Opposition MLAs. “An Urban Improvement Trust project worth Rs.157 crore was held up for three years for no reason. The Government does not take interest in the development of any part of the district except the Bhiwadi industrial area,” said senior party leader Fateh Singh Yadav.

Mr. Singhal of the BJP has tried hard to rise above his image as a hard-core VHP leader by affirming that communal harmony would always pave the way for development. “All communities should remain united. Our identity as Indians is something we must be proud of,” he told this corresponding while campaigning in the city’s Ladia Mohalla.

However, the VHP leader’s supporters pointed out that he had gained recognition in the majority community by his drive against the alleged cow slaughter incidents in the Meo-dominated rural belt in the district. A section of the BJP activists is unhappy about the ticket being given to the leader of an affiliated group of Sangh Parivar rather than the party.

Rebels threaten to play spoilsport for both the Congress and BJP on several seats in the district. While Pushpa Gupta of the BJP, defeated by Jitendra Singh in the 2003 polls, is contesting as an Independent from Alwar Urban, Omprakash Rodha is all set to damage the prospects of BJP candidate Ramhet Yadav in Kishangarhbas.

Both major parties expect that the Gujjar factor, if any, would be confined to the limited areas of their influence in Bansur, Thanaghazi and Tijara, where the Bahujan Samaj Party has been trying hard to open its account. The late Meo leader Tayyab Hussain’s son, Fazal Hussain – contesting as a BSP nominee – expects to get “sympathy votes” in Tijara presently represented by Aimaduddin Ahmed Khan of Congress.

Interestingly, as many as six medicos are trying their luck as party candidates and Independents in the district. They include the Congress MP from Alwar, Karan Singh Yadav, contesting from Behror, and retired government doctor Jagdish Sampatram fielded as BJP candidate from Alwar Rural seat.

In the absence of any visible wave, both the major parties are keeping their fingers crossed about the outcome of the December 4 elections. Evidently, stakes for both the sides are high with the electoral calculations rather than the issues affecting the common people dominating the political discourse here.

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