Rajasthan | Why Congress and BJP are banking on turncoats this election season

Though the Lok Sabha polls in Rajasthan were a one-sided affair with the BJP making a clean sweep in 2014 and 2019, the Congress is trying to put up a fight to break the jinx and stop the ruling party from making a hat-trick.

However, caring two hoots for political morality or public propriety, the two rival parties are banking on turncoats to emerge victorious in these elections. It seems both the parties have set aside their principles and ideologies and their sole aim is to win elections at any cost. This is what explains the trend of allotting ticket to the leaders within hours of their joining a party.

Leading the pack of turncoats is two-time former BJP MLA Prahlad Gunjal, one of the close aides of former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia in Kota-Bundi belt, who quit the BJP to join the Congress last month. He has now vowed to strengthen the Congress — a party he till now had opposed bitterly in his political career spanning four decades — in the Hadoti region of Rajasthan.

The Congress has now fielded Gunjal against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla in the Kota Lok Sabha constituency. In the last year’s assembly elections, the BJP fielded him from Kota North seat, but he lost to senior Congress leader Shanti Dhariwal. Not surprisingly, Dhariwal was missing from his induction ceremony at the Congress headquarters in Jaipur.

Switching loyalty

Interestingly, Gunjal is not alone and there are many leaders on either sides of the political spectrum who jumped the ship just ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP inducted senior Congress leader and sitting MLA Mahendrajeet Singh Malviya in the party and declared him as the BJP candidate from the tribal dominated Banswara Lok Sabha seat. Four-time MLA Malviya was a former minister and a member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). He was upset over not being appointed the Leader of the Opposition after the Congress’ defeat in the last year’s assembly elections. He was also elected an MP from Banswara in 1998 and he served as a minister twice in the Congress regimes in Rajasthan.

The Congress too got an opportunity to strike back at the BJP, as sitting Churu MP Rahul Kaswan quit the saffron camp and joined the grand old party earlier this month. The Congress moved swiftly in announcing his candidature from Churu seat, which Kaswan has won twice since 2014.

Internal feud

Son of Ram Singh Kaswan, a former MP from Churu, Rahul switched loyalty to the Congress after the BJP denied a ticket to him and instead fielded Paralympian Devendra Jhajharia from the seat. The BJP attributed the move to Kaswan’s feud with senior BJP leader Rajendra Rathore, a former seven-time MLA who was also the Rajasthan Leader of Opposition before the assembly elections.

Both Rathore and Kaswan shared a good rapport till the Rajasthan assembly elections last year, but a shock defeat for Rathore in the 2023 polls change it all. Rathore’s aides alleged that the Kaswan family was responsible for Rathore’s defeat as they extended aid to the Congress candidate and backstabbed Rathore in the electoral arena. The denial of ticket to Kaswan was seen by many as a counter attack by Rathore, who holds considerable clout in the BJP.

In another such instance in Western Rajasthan, the Congress has declared Umeda Ram Beniwal, a turncoat from the Hanuman Beniwal-led Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), as its candidate from the Jat dominated Barmer parliamentary seat.

BJP eyes Jat, OBC votes

Former Congress MP Jyoti Mirdha too joined the BJP in September last year and the party has now fielded her from Nagaur Lok Sabha constituency.

Moreover, the BJP has also inducted several OBC Congress leaders like Richpal Mirdha and his son Vijaypal Mirdha, both of whom belong to the Mirdha clan, one of the most influential Jat political families in Rajasthan. Incidentally, Jyoti is the niece of Richpal Mirdha who is now campaigning for her in Nagaur.

These defections clearly point towards the BJP’s focus on the Jat and OBC votes in the state, where the NDA has been winning all 25 Lok Sabha seats since 2014. By inducting strong OBC and Jat leaders, the BJP aims to strengthen its grip in districts such as Nagaur, where the Jat votes play a critical role in deciding the winner.

On the other hand, the Congress hopes to give a tough fight to the BJP by fielding Kaswan in Churu, which is part of the Shekhawati region. Even though the Congress lost the 2023 assembly elections, it had outperformed the BJP in the Shekhawati belt.

Leadership change

Political analysts opined that a leadership change in the Rajasthan BJP may have triggered an exodus among the party leaders.

Seasoned BJP leaders such as Kaswan and Gunjal were counted among staunch supporters of former Chief Minister Raje, who was not given a third term by the saffron party leadership after they came to power last year. Incidentally, the Raje supporters, who are still in the BJP, are also feeling sidelined ever since the formation of the new government in December last year. Prominent among them are eight-time MLA Kalicharan Saraf, seven-time MLA Pratap Singh Singhvi, six-time MLA Pushpendra Singh Ranawat and five-time MLA Anita Bhadel.

With the BJP top brass in absolute control of Rajasthan, where first-time MLA Bhajan Lal Sharma was appointed the chief minister, Raje’s supporters now find themselves staring at an uncertain future.