BJP has fielded minister Yunus Khan to fight against Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot from Tonk, which is a Muslim-dominated area. The total population of Tonk assembly seat is about 2,50,000, of which about 70,000 belong to the minority community, although the SC-ST votes are more than that. The Gujjar population comes at the third place. Chief minister Vasundhara Raje feels that when Yunus Khan contests as the BJP candidate, he can get the Muslim votes as well as BJP’s own votes. In the last assembly election BJP won the seat with a margin of 30,000 votes. The Gujjars are expected to support Sachin Pilot and if he manages to attract SC-ST votes, he should be able to score a comfortable win.
BJP HOPES FOR SP-BSP HITS ON CONGRESS
BJP is not particularly comfortable in Madhya Pradesh, but the party is hoping that SP-BSP combination will damage Congress prospects, which the saffron party believes might help it romp home. Of course, the sudden announcement by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj that she won’t be fighting the next Lok Sabha election has created confusion among the BJP workers. Most political observers feel that Sushma Swaraj’s decision indicates that the party is not comfortable in this assembly election. Sushma has cited health reasons for her decision, and her supporters claim that she used to visit her constituency once in a month, but now she is unable to do so. Sushma represents the Vidisha Lok Sabha seat from where the late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee came to Lok Sabha and Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan won the election five times.
PASWAN PLAYS A CLEVER GAME
After Upendra Kushwaha’s quarrel with BJP-JD(U) alliance in Bihar over his RLSP demand for more than three seats for the 2019 parliamentary election, Ram Vilas Paswan has played his cards well and secured four seats for the Lok Jan Shakti party. In addition Paswan has been assured of a nomination to Rajya Sabha from Assam. According to observers, Nitish Kumar does not want to give any seat to Kushwaha’s party. But Kushwaha is in regular touch with Lalu Prasad Yadav and is bargaining for a respectful place in Lalu’s grand alliance comprising RJD, Congress, NCP, CPI and Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha.
UTTARAKHAND CIVIC POLL JOLTS BOTH BJP, CONGRESS
The results of local body election in Uttarakhand have exposed both Congress and BJP. On one side the BJP has lost the chairmanship of Nagar Panchayat in Doiwala, the assembly constituency of chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. On the other hand, the son of Indira Hridayesh, the leader of Congress in the assembly, has lost the Mayor election in Haldwani. In the Ranikhet assembly constituency of BJP state president Ajay Bhatt, Congress has won chairman of Chiliyanaula Nagar Panchayat. BJP also suffered a major loss in Haridwar, where Congress candidate Anita Sharma defeated Annu Kakkar with a huge margin. The voters of Haridwar have thus rejected minister Madan Kaushik who is said to be the right hand man of chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat. But BJP is happy that it has won five out of seven city corporations and Congress has won only two. In terms of city panchayat chairmanship, Congress won 17 and BJP 12. (IPA)
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