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From Palace to Parliament?

MOHAMMED IQBAL

It was on the insistence of Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi that the scion of the erstwhile royal family and the then MLA Bhanwar Jitendra Singh did not contest the Rajasthan Assembly elections five months ago. Mr. Gandhi wanted him in Parliament as a member of his “youth brigade” to strengthen the party and serve its agenda of infusing fresh blood into politics.

Jitendra Singh (37) has now joined the race for the Lok Sabha as the Congress candidate while calling upon the electorate to extend support to him for developing Alwar as an important centre in the National Capital Region. His simplicity, mild manners and inimitable style of addressing the people have impressed the voters and generated hopes that the Congress would retain the seat perched in the Aravalli hills.

Denying speculation that he was initially reluctant to fight the election, Jitendra Singh’s supporters point out that doctors had advised him not to plunge into politics and take rest in view of some “medical complications” shortly after the Congress announced his candidature. With the BJP making wrong accusations to exploit the situation, he decided to confront the rivals head-on.

In Jitendra Singh’s candidature, the ordinary voters in the land of the legendary King Bhartrihari perceive a ray of hope for development of the region, which is yet to reap full benefits of its inclusion in the NCR. People fondly remember the young candidate’s father, Pratap Singh, and mother, Mahendra Kumari, for their perseverance to get basic facilities for the rural areas of their erstwhile princely state.

District Congress Committee’s banking cell president O.P. Sharma said those loyal to the erstwhile royal family, who treated Phool Bagh — the palace where Jitendra Singh lives — as their own home, were annoyed by the offensive remarks of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and BJP State president Omprakash Mathur. “The BJP’s propaganda is bound to boomerang on it. It is going to be a historic defeat of the saffron party here,” he affirmed.

The Congress activists also accuse the BJP of turning the electoral battle into a caste-based fight by fielding Kiran Yadav, wife of Behror MLA Jaswant Yadav, with an eye on the 2.5-lakh-strong Yadav voters. “Even if there is one-sided voting by Yadavs for the BJP, Ms. Yadav is unlikely to win,” asserts Radheyshyam Vashishtha at the Congress election office in the city.

With two more Assembly segments merged into Alwar post-delimitation, there are 1.70 lakh Meo Muslim, 1.25 lakh Brahmin and 1.14 lakh Vaishya voters in the constituency. Jitendra Singh’s proximity to Mr. Gandhi is likely to capture the youth votes.

Ms. Yadav finds herself on a sticky wicket after the withdrawal of nomination by BSP candidate Abdul Ghaffar with some dramatic allegations against the BSP State in-charge. This may help in diverting the minority votes to the Congress account in view of the Rajasthan Muslim Forum recently announcing its support to the Congress.

Nervous over the new equations spelling an end to the Yadav community’s dominance on the seat, the BJP workers have started making wild allegations against the Ashok Gehlot Government in the State. “The Congress Government has not done anything constructive during its five-month tenure. The Ministers are only cutting the ribbons of projects launched during Ms. Raje’s regime,” said BJP district executive member Shyamlal Sahu.

Ms. Yadav too has tried to throw conjectures during her campaign that there was a “conspiracy” behind the withdrawal of Mr. Ghaffar’s candidature. Fully realising that she cannot rely on the Yadav votes alone, Ms. Yadav has been trying to make feeble attempts to reach out to other communities without any tangible success so far.

After the recent laying of foundation stone for a big Employees’ State Insurance hospital here, people in Alwar expect Jitendra Singh to raise the issue of development of the town as a metro city situated at an equal distance from Delhi and Jaipur. The voters feel that the city should have a modern airport, a double-track broad gauge railway line and fully developed tourist spots in and around the famous Sariska wildlife reserve.

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