Rajasthan BJP Crisis: Why Are Its Leaders Undermining Its Campaign on Key Seats? Why did they turn against the Party?

Rajasthan BJP Crisis: The BJP which was flying high in 2014 and 2019, seems to be stuck in the battleground of Rajasthan this time. There are about half a dozen seats where the old and angry leaders of the party are busy creating problems. 

These include major seats like Barmer, Nagaur, Churu and Kota.

Interestingly, most of these seats are Gujjar and Jat dominated and the party had performed well here in the 2023 assembly elections. Initially the party was expecting a clean sweep here this time too, but now the matter has become complicated.

For damage control, the party has also organised rallies of Prime Minister Modi in most of these seats. In the last 7 days, the Prime Minister himself has addressed public meetings in 5 seats.  

BJP is entangled in its own web on these seats

Churu

Bharatiya Janata Party has been winning this seat since 1999. Ram Singh Kaswan was the MP from here from 1999 to 2014. His son Rahul Kaswan won from here in 2014 and 2019. 

This time the party fielded Devendra Jhajharia in place of Rahul Kaswan. After his ticket was cut, Kaswan rebelled and contested on the Congress symbol. 

Kaswan alleges that his ticket has been cut because of former Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan Assembly Rajendra Rathore. Rathore also comes from this area and he lost from Taranagar seat in the 2023 assembly elections.

Kaswan is busy making the whole fight a farmer versus feudalism. BJP organised a rally of Prime Minister Modi here in view of the danger. The party hopes that they will benefit from Modi’s rally.

Nagaur

BJP had won this seat of Jatland last time in alliance with RLP, but this time RLP is a part of India Alliance. Hanuman Beniwal himself is contesting from Nagaur.

BJP has fielded Jyoti Mirdha, who came from Congress, as its candidate. Mirdha had also contested the elections in 2019 and got around 4 lakh votes. 

With Hanuman Beniwal contesting from Nagaur seat, the fight has become interesting. Nagaur seat is Jat dominated and BJP holds only 2 out of 8 assembly seats here.

Kota

BJP’s Om Birla, who is the outgoing Lok Sabha MP, is in the fray from this seat. Congress has fielded Prahlad Gunjal from here. Gunjal was in BJP till now. In 2023, he also contested from Kota North seat, but lost to Shanti Dhariwal of Congress.

Gunjal’s direct target is Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Gunjal is working on a strategy to defeat Birla with the help of local equations. Gunjal is also targeting the BJP cadre by targeting Om Birla’s dictatorial attitude.

Gunjal belongs to the Gujjar community, whose population is very high in the Kota-Bundi Lok Sabha constituency. In such a situation, if the equation works in his favour, then difficulties may increase for the party here.

Barmer

Barmer, situated on the India-Pakistan border, has remained the hottest seat at present. Prime Minister Modi held a rally here on Friday, in which he appealed to make the BJP candidate win.

In 2019, the BJP candidate won in Barmer by a margin of more than 3 lakh votes, but this time the seat seems to be stuck due to internal strife. 

Union Minister Kailash Choudhary is in the fray from BJP. Congress has fielded Ummedaram Beniwal, while independent Ravindra Bhati is also contesting from here.

Bhati was earlier in BJP, but in the 2023 assembly elections, BJP did not give him a ticket from Shiv, after which he became a rebel. Even before 2024, BJP was trying to woo Bhati, but the party could not woo Bhati.

The party was successful in doing damage control on 2 seats

Before the Lok Sabha elections, there was rebellion in Jodhpur and Chittorgarh in BJP , but the party did damage control in both the places. In Chittorgarh, Chandrabhan Akya was contesting against state president CP Joshi.

Whereas in Jodhpur, Shergarh MLA Babu Singh Rathore had opened a front against Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. However, the Chief Minister pacified both the leaders by convincing them and brought them to his side.