New Delhi: Former BJP leader and Vasundhara Raje loyalist Yoonus Khan sprang a surprise this election when he decided to contest from his traditional seat Deedwana as an Independent after being denied a ticket by the party. The former minister, who was seen as number two in Raje’s government, defeated his main rival, Chetan Dudi of the Congress, by 2,392 votes, while BJP candidate Jitendra Jodha was in third place.
The BJP denied Khan a ticket from Muslim-dominated Deedwana and instead fielded Jodha, who had lost to Dudi, a Jat leader, by a margin of 40,602 votes in the 2018 elections. The BJP did not field any Muslim candidate in Rajasthan this time.
Khan was sidelined in the party despite having clout among the Muslims and Rajputs of Deedwana, which has an electorate of 2.66 lakh. In this constituency, Meghwals, Bairwas and other Scheduled Caste communities make up 35,000 votes, the Jat community forms around 60,000, and Kayamkhani Muslims make up around 50,000.
Khan has been elected from Deedwana twice, once in 2003 and then in 2013. In 2003, he defeated Dudi’s father Rupa Ram, and in 2013, he courted the Muslim and Dalit communities to counter Dudi. In 1998 and 2008, Rupa Ram had defeated Khan. In 2018, the BJP had fielded Khan against Sachin Pilot in Tonk, where he lost by a margin of 50,000 votes.
While campaigning, Khan mostly attacked the Congress, which led Dudi to allege that he is the BJP’s dummy candidate to cut Congress votes.
‘Favourite of Raje, but not of RSS’
When he was minister in the Raje cabinet, Khan held the important portfolios of PWD and transport.
A senior Rajasthan BJP leader had earlier told ThePrint that “Raje was a strong advocate of Yoonus and wanted to field him but other party leaders did not necessarily agree”.
The decision to field Khan from Tonk in 2018 had reportedly come on Raje’s insistence. All the other three Muslim candidates who had contested in 2013 were denied tickets in the 2018 election.
“Yoonus Khan was not a favourite of the RSS, but he was a favourite of Raje. The BJP fielded him against Pilot in 2018 to divide the Muslim vote in Tonk, which has a significant Muslim population,” the leader said.
Khan’s ascent in politics started after the late former Rajasthan chief minister and vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat chose him to fight from Deedwana. However, his influence has waned over the years.
Last month, Khan had told ThePrint: “I don’t know why the BJP did not field me this time. People in my constituency were angry and they have asked me to fight against the party’s decision. I was in the BJP for 25 years and did whatever I was asked to do. I did not ask for anything in return and followed orders. Now, I can’t disrespect the people who voted for me in the past.”
Before Yoonus Khan, in Rajasthan, a prominent Muslim face of the BJP used to be Ramzan Khan, who died in 2004. He was a minister in the Bhairon Singh Shekhawat government and won as MLA from Pushkar several times.
In the 2003 and 2008 polls, the BJP fielded three Muslims. In 2013, it fielded four Muslim candidates, two of whom won — Habibur Rahman (who joined the Congress in 2018) from the Nagaur seat, and Yoonus Khan from Deedwana.
The Congress had fielded 15 Muslim candidates in Rajasthan in 2018, with seven emerging victorious. This year, it has again fielded 15 Muslim candidates in the state.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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