BJP eyeing reversal of Rajasthan Assembly poll loss

Jaipur: With polling for 2019 Lok Sabha just days away, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Rajasthan is hoping that it will be able to reverse its recent drubbing in the state Assembly elections and repeat its 2014 Lok Sabha performance.

Senior BJP leaders claimed that the party, which faced severe anti-incumbency during the state legislature polls, would do better in Lok Sabha elections. Leaders blame the loss in the Assembly elections on voters and party cadres’ anger with the Vasundhara Raje government and say that there is no such alienation among them in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls as the Narendra Modi factor is still strongly in place.

Sources stated that Ms Raje’s negative image among the party cadre was the main cause for the BJP’s drubbing in the state polls and the party hopes that Mr Modi’s strong image would work in its favour when the state goes to polls on April 29 and May 6.

Moreover, the selection of candidates for the state is being done directly by the Central leadership led by party chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Ms Raje having been cut to size in the distribution of tickets process.

In an indication that the party was looking beyond Ms Raje, several of her detractors have also been taken on board.

On Thursday, Hanuman Beniwal, leader of Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, joined the BJP. The influential Jat leader was expelled by the BJP in 2013 after a run-in with the Vasundhara camp. He is likley to be fielded from Nagaur Lok Sabha constituency in place of Union minister C.R. Chaudhary.

The Rajasthan state unit backed by Ms Raje had remained at loggerheads with the Central leadership for months last year over the appointment of the state president which has soured the relationship between them.

Rajasthan is considered an important part of the BJP’s plan to return to power at the Centre and the Amit Shah-led unit doesn’t want to lose control of the state which had elected all 25 of its Lok Sabha MPs from the party symbol in 2014.

The BJP, however, lost two Lok Sabha seats, Ajmer and Alwar, in bypolls during Ms Raje’s tenure, and the party was only able to secure 75 seats in the 200-member Assembly in the recently held state polls, losing the crucial state to the Congress.

Though the BJP accepts that the Modi wave of 2014 may be weakening, Mr Modi’s tough stance on Pulwama, backing of the armed forces, implementation of One Rank One Pension scheme and nationalism could help tilt voters in its favour. Incidentally, the border state has a huge population of ex-servicemen and serving men in the armed and paramiltary forces.

Despite the BJP being hopeful of a comeback, the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress aims to make some inroads into the BJP’s tally and reclaim at least a few of the Lok Sabha constituencies for itself.