Keen battle on cards in Jodhpur

Yash Goyal

Jodhpur, December 3

The gateway to Rajasthan’’s sandy desert terrain, Jodhpur, is the most keenly watched Marwar where top leaders, including six present and five former ministers, are contesting 16 hot Assembly seats out of 30 that go to the polls on December 7. In the 2013 elections, the BJP had won 27 seats, while the Congress could bag just three.

Jodhpur’s blue-eyed boy Ashok Gehlot, AICC general secretary and two-term former CM, is contesting the Sardarpura seat against BJP’s Shambhu Singh Khetasar, chairman of Rajasthan State Seeds Corporation Ltd. (Cabinet rank), who lost the last polls by 18,478 votes.

Gehlot has been representing the seat for four consecutive terms (1998 to 2013). His dominance can be gauged from the fact that during the 2013 “Modi wave”, the Congress could win just one (Sardarpura) of the 10 Assembly seats in Jodhpur, which has 24.58 lakh voters.

Gehlot, who has the backing of OBC Mali community, accuses Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of deliberately neglecting the Marwar region by not adopting Jodhpur, the second biggest city in the state, for “smart city” projects.

Khetasar, a Rajput leader, accuses Gehlot of not caring enough for his constituency. “As an MLA, why did not he (Gehlot) not raise a single question in the Assembly? He was mostly absent from the House during the five years,” alleges Khetasar during his door-to-door public outreach.

Local businessmen Kishnaram Kachhwaha and Vijay Singh Solanki feel if Gehlot is projected as the chief ministerial face, the Congress stands a chance to win at least 140 out of 200 seats in the state. The Sardarpura seat with 2.27 lakh voters is dominated by Mali community (50,000), followed by Rajput (35,000), Muslim (30,000), SC/ST (20,000), Jat (8,000) and others 20,000.

While the BJP is going all out to hold on to the nine of the 10 Jodhpur seats, the Congress is confident of wresting at least six.