Sikar: Staying the night at a guesthouse near the iconic Khatu Shyam Mandir in Rajasthan’s Sikar, Dr Rita Singh Chaudhary, the Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) candidate for the Danta Ramgarh seat, gets ready to hit the campaign trail in a bid to dislodge her own husband and incumbent Congress MLA, Virendra Singh.
Rita Singh told ThePrint that it’s “not personal”, while a close aide said she thought that her husband’s family had held her back in politics, though the Congress was ready to give her a chance.
Once a Congress member, she is now the president of the Haryana-centred JJP’s women’s wing in Rajasthan. The JJP has made a foray into the Rajasthan polls, fielding candidates in a number of seats where its Haryana ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party, is also contesting.
Speaking about her candidature, Rita Singh said, “It is not about standing against anyone. As zila pramukh (of Sikar), I have worked a lot. The previous time, the Congress made him the party candidate (from Danta Ramgarh) and I remained among the people. But time doesn’t wait for anyone. You have to take a stand at one point. For yourself and the public as well. Now I have taken a stand for the people and their issues.”
According to a close aide of hers, “Rita Singh is a former zila pramukh who has worked for the people of Sikar. Her in-laws being an influential political family held her back in politics, even though the party (Congress) was ready to take her ahead. It is always difficult for women in society to march ahead.”
Rita Singh and her husband live separately, though they are still legally married.
When ThePrint approached Virendra Singh to ask him about his wife’s political plunge, he refused to comment beyond saying that her candidature wouldn’t affect his votes.
Singh has inherited his political lineage from his father Narayan Singh, a tall Congress leader and former party chief in Rajasthan. The Congress has won seven of the nine elections in Danta Ramgarh since 1980. Narayan Singh won the seat six of these seven times, and in 1972 as well.
Rajasthan goes to the polls Saturday, and the results will be out on 3 December.
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Slim margins in 2013 & 2018
What makes the Danta Ramgarh contest interesting is that Virendra Singh won the seat by a margin of just 920 votes in the 2018 Rajasthan elections. This was still higher than his father’s victory margin in his last election in 2013 (575 votes).
Both elections saw Bharatiya Janata Party candidates finish as runners-up, though the party has never won the seat.
It is likely that if Rita Singh manages to draw a few thousand votes, she could influence the election result.
Rita Singh said she worked hard for her father-in-law’s victory in 2013 and her husband’s in 2018. She had asked the Congress for a ticket for herself in 2018, but her husband was picked instead, she told ThePrint.
The JJP relies heavily on the Jat vote bank, which is said to play a significant role in the Danta Ramgarh constituency. Rita Singh is relying specifically on women and the Jat voters.
‘Communication gap led to this’
Talking about her fraught relationship with her husband, Rita Singh blamed a “communication gap” for the current situation.
“Communication is a major tool. Even big wars are solved through communication. There was probably a major gap in communication (between us) that resulted in the present-day situation. Now he is in the Congress and I am in the JJP,” she said.
But Virendra Singh chose not to speak about his wife and her decision to fight the elections.
Talking to ThePrint early morning Monday, as party workers lined up to meet him, he expressed confidence about his victory.
“I have done a lot of work. Danta Ramgarh constituency saw a lot of development under my father and I have done the rest of the work in my tenure. Only the issue of water remains and we will try to solve that this time,” he said.
For Rita Singh, however, water is the main issue in her election campaign.
When asked about the prospects of his wife, Singh said, “It won’t affect my vote. The BJP, Communist Party, Independents and others are fighting for votes. The Congress’s votes are intact.”
In the 2018 assembly elections, Sikar district had seen a wipe-out for the BJP.
Of the eight assembly seats in the district, the Congress won seven, while one (Khandela) was secured by Independent candidate Mahadeo Singh.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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