New Delhi: Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, a loyalist of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, seems to be one of the few rebel leaders the BJP has managed to convince to withdraw from the poll fray in Rajasthan.
More than 25 rebels are still standing against the official BJP candidates in the crucial state election despite phone calls by Union home minister Amit Shah and manoeuvres by Union minister Gajendra Shekhawat, party sources told ThePrint.
“The party has been trying to convince at least half-a-dozen rebels to withdraw from the contest and work for the victory of official candidates on 25 November, but has got limited success,” a source said.
Rajpal has withdrawn from the fray in Jhotwara against former Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore after a personal call by Shah. But another rebel, Ashu Singh Surpura, did not agree to withdraw from the constituency and is fighting as an Independent, said the sources.
The BJP is aiming to wrest power from the ruling Congress in Rajasthan.
Other prominent leaders who have refused to back down include Yunus Khan, who is fighting against BJP candidate Jitendra Jodha in Deedwana, Chandrabhan Singh Aakya, the sitting BJP MLA from Chittorgarh who is contesting as an Independent after he was replaced by Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s son-in-law Narpat Singh Rajvi, and Kailash Meghwal, the sitting MLA from Shahpura who has been dropped as candidate from the seat in favour of Lala Ram Birwa.
Khan was the MLA from Deedwana, a Muslim-dominated constituency, from 2013 to 2018. In 2018, the Raje loyalist was chosen to contest against Sachin Pilot in Tonk at the last minute, but lost the election. He was the BJP’s only Muslim candidate that year.
A senior Rajasthan BJP leader had earlier told ThePrint that Raje was a strong advocate of Yunus Khan, but other party leaders did not necessarily agree. The BJP has not fielded a single Muslim candidate from any of the 200 constituencies this year.
BJP’s Jitendra Jodha had lost to Congress’ Chetan Dudi at Deedwana by 40,000 votes in 2018, and it is being said that Khan’s rebellion can make the road easy for Dudi, who is contesting again from the seat.
Khan, who is standing as an Independent, 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.”
In Chittorgarh, Aakya is making Rajvi’s fight difficult. Vidhyadhar Nagar MLA Rajvi has won the seat in the past and was given a ticket after he was denied Vidhyadhar Nagar in favour of Diya Kumari.
Last week, Aakya resigned from the BJP membership and decided not to withdraw from the polls despite the state leadership trying to mollify him. He has also alleged that Rajasthan BJP president C.P. Joshi conspired against him, and his supporters burnt Joshi’s effigy in the constituency.
Aakya told ThePrint: “A conspiracy was launched against me and the state president denied me a ticket. He has had a problem with me from university days. But people in my constituency have asked me to fight the election.”
In Shahpura, the BJP is facing rebellion from its veteran Dalit leader and Raje loyalist Kailash Meghwal, who was suspended from the party in September for making allegations of corruption against Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal.
“I was the candidate who won with the highest margin in the last election. This time, I will win with more than 1 lakh votes and will teach the BJP leadership a lesson. They succumbed under Arjun Ram Meghwal’s pressure to deny me a ticket,” Meghwal, who too is standing as an Independent, told ThePrint.
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Why the dissent?
Talking about the mass rebellions, Rajvi told ThePrint last week that the reason was lack of communication and redressal mechanism in the party unit. Though chosen to contest the polls from Chittorgarh, Rajvi still seemed to be hurting from denial of ticket from Vidhyadhar Nagar.
“In the past, senior leaders such Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Hari Shankar Bhabhra and Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi were readily available to meet aspirants who did not get tickets. The dropped candidates were usually called over phone before final ticket announcements were made to inform them of party compulsions, and were mollified with personal meetings. But I was not even informed about denial of ticket from Vidhyadhar Nagar,” he said.
“Lack of contact with the cadre is hampering the party and causing rebellion.”
Another senior Rajasthan BJP leader blamed “the high command culture” for having “diluted the state leadership”.
“Not only has the redressal mechanism been diluted, but neglect of tall local leadership and high command culture has weakened the state leadership’s role in deciding tickets and managing rebellion,” the leader said.
“In (former chief minister) Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s time, he was the sole point-person and his call was enough to address rebellion. Similarly, during Raje’s tenure as CM, she was the final authority to decide tickets and manage rebels. Both leaders had enormous influence on the cadre but now, leaders are not paying attention to the calls of Union minister, state president and in-charge, knowing they have no influence in decision-making,” the leader explained.
He, too, reiterated that “weakening of the state leadership has limited the BJP’s ability to manage rebellion”.
The many rebels
Sheo is seeing an interesting contest between three BJP rebels who are fighting against official party candidate Sawaroop Singh Khara and the sitting Congress MLA Amin Khan.
The rebels include BJP’s youth face Ravindra Bhati, former MLA Jalam Singh, and the candidate in the last election, Khuman Singh.
Bhati is said to be drawing good support in the constituency with several organisations crowd-funding his campaign. He had won the students election at Jodhpur’s Jai Narain Vyas University as an Independent in 2019 and was inducted in the BJP recently on the promise of a ticket from Shiv, but was denied finally.
Jalam Singh is contesting on a Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) ticket.
Khuman Singh had contested against Amin Singh of the Congress, but lost in 2018.
In Sanchore, the BJP has fielded MP Devji Patel. His bitter opponents and ticket contenders, Dana Ram Choudhary and Jivaram Choudhary, have joined hand to oppose Patel’s candidature and threatened to contest independently. Their supporters have held big rallies in protest. Patel is even said to have gone to candidate Jivaram Choudhary’s house to mollify him, but to no avail.
BJP MP Kirodi Lal Meena, who has been fielded from Sawai Madhopur, is facing rebellion as well. The party’s 2018 candidate Asha Meena, despite placatory bids by several senior state leaders, is in the fray to divide the Meena votes.
In Kishangarh, the party has given the ticket to MP Bhagirath Choudhary, drawing protest from Vikas Choudhary who unsuccessfully contested there in 2018. Vikas joined the Congress in the presence of Priyanka Gandhi last month and has got the ticket to fight against the BJP MP.
In Barmer, BJP rebel Priyanka Choudhary is contesting against party candidate Deepak Karwasara. The RLP has supported Priyanka, who is fighting independently, to make the contest tough.
In Tijara, the BJP seems to have got some success in containing rebellion of former MLA Maman Yadav who was bent on contesting against official BJP candidate Balaknath. Singh has now announced withdrawal from the fray.
Other constituencies where the party is facing rebels include Khandela, Ladpura, Suratgarh, Sujangarh, Sikar, Kotputli, Jalore and Bassi.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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