Vasundhara Raje gears up for prestige fight in bypolls

Jaipur: Following the BJP's victories in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje is leaving nothing to chance for the January 29, 2018, bypolls to two Parliament and one state Assembly seats, a contest seen as a referendum on the saffron party's performance.

After the BJP's setback in recent local body by-elections confirmed anti-incumbency, particularly in the rural areas, Ms Raje is spending more time in the field, announcing sops and schemes and interacting with people from all castes with the aim of retaining all the three seats next month.

In the past few weeks, Ms Raje has made frequent trips to the parliamentary constituencies —- six to Alwar and 10 to Ajmer. She has visited Mandalgarh Assembly constituency once.

According to BJP leaders, separate teams have been formed for every Assembly segment constituting Ajmer and Alwar Lok Sabha seats. Each team is headed by a Cabinet minister who is assisted by the local MLA.

Earlier, close on the heels of an improved performance in Gujarat, the Congress this month wrested all the four zila parishad seats from the BJP. The Opposition party also won 16 of the 27 panchayat samiti seats and six Nagar Palika seats, for which bypolls were held. The ruling BJP had to remain content with 10 panchayat samiti seats although it won seven nagar palika wards.

For the by-polls next month, Ms Raje has taken the campaigning reins in her hand unlike Dholpur Assembly by-poll in April during which she had left micro management to trusted Cabinet ministers and went there only in the last leg of the campaigning;

There is a visible attempt by the chief minister to convey to the public that she is personally attending to their problems. She is holding interactive sessions with party workers and general public, hearing their grievances and immediately making calls to ministers and bureaucrats to resolve them, said observers.

For example, when the farmers of Shahjahanpur in Alwar complained about the power lines passing over their farms, Ms Raje immediately sought a report from the power department officials.

On grievances linked to land acquisition for the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), she directed the district collector to resolve the issues by organising meetings with the complainants and the elected representatives.

BJP leaders said that Ms Raje also doesn't forget to remind voters about what she has done and what they can expect in future.

In Ajmer, the home constituency of PCC president Sachin Pilot that he lost in 2014, the chief minister pushed the Centre government for quick completion of an airport at Kishangarh.