In Jaisalmer, BJP hopes to consolidate Hindu votes : The Tribune India

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In Jaisalmer, BJP hopes to consolidate Hindu votes

POKHRAN: In the land of shifting sand dunes and thorny bushes, BJP hopes to retain two assembly seats—Jaisalmer and Pokhran.

In Jaisalmer, BJP hopes to consolidate Hindu votes

Saleh Mohammed (left) and Pratap Puri.



Yash Goyal
Our Correspondent
Pokhran, December 3

There is more to the desert district of Jaisalmer than meets the eye.  This land of shifting sand dunes and thorny bushes is home to India’s nuclear test site Pokhran.

This is also the place where Bharatiya Janata Party hopes its ‘Hindutva card’ will help it retain its two assembly seats—Pokhran and Jaisalmer, both won in 2013 assembly elections.

Spread over 38,401 sq km, Jaisalmer is largest district in the state and the third largest in the country. But its extreme weather conditions ensure low population density—at 17 per sq km, it has the lowest population density in the state according to the 2011 census. Even now, in the beginning of December, as winter sinks its claws into other parts of the country, in Jaisalmer mercury soars to a warm 31 degrees Celsius.

Of the district’s 6.70 lakh people, 4.19 lakh people are on the electoral rolls.

Electioneering is hard here, as it is in the neighbouring Barmer district—candidates usually canvas within 15-20 km range of sparsely populated ‘Dhanis’ (hamlet) in their SUVs to skirt the shifting sand.

Both Congress and the BJP have played the Hindu card to consolidate votes in the state. In his recent election speech in Alwar, BJP’s star campaigner Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of bullying the Supreme court in the Ayodhya dispute.

More recently, Congress president Rahul Gandhi claimed Modi didn't understand Hinduism. 

"What is the essence of Hinduism? What does the Gita say? That knowledge is with everybody, knowledge is all around you. Every living being has knowledge. Our PM says he is a Hindu but he doesn't understand foundation of Hinduism. What kind of a Hindu is he?" Rahul Gandhi sad at an address to a business community in Udaipur.

To consolidate Hindu votes, the BJP chose to drop its sitting MLA Shaitan Singh to field a Hindu spiritual Pratap Puri in Pokhran.

Puri, who’s born a Rajput, is a prominent mahant of Barmer’s Taratra Peeth who has a ‘math’ at Pokhran’s Naath-ji-ka-Ghoona that has sees thousands of followers. 

Puri is fighting a keenly contested battle against Congress candidate Saleh Mohammed, son of the famous Ghazi Fakir, a spiritual leader. Followers of Sufi spiritual leader Peer of Pagaro, the Ghazi Fakir family has been politically influential in Jaisalmer district for decades.  

Pokhran has 1.95 lakh voters—48,000 of Muslims; 40,000 Rajputs; 26,000 SCs; and 12,000 ST, as well as OBC-Mali voters who could turn the tide.

Talking to The Tribune Saleh, who was at Ramdeora for public meetings, accused the BJP of playing the communal card. “BJP should tell the voters why it denied sitting MLA Singh a ticket?”

Issue of the effects of radiation from the 1998 Pokhran tests, such as cancer or physical disability, on the local population form a major political issue for Saleh, as do frequent drought and famine in the region.  

“Despite 15 deaths in 20 years, the government hasn’t conducted a radiation survey,” he said.

The region faces acute water crisis despite the IGNP canal flowing into the district.

“One water tanker costs Rs 2,000 a day. A Public Health Centre has been built but remains non-functional. Higher education remains a distant dream,” Saleh says.  

Puri says he did not seek to contest the election—it was the public and fellow spiritual leaders who wanted him to do so.

“I will do ‘Rajniti ka shudhikaran’ (purification of politics). There’s no politics without ‘Dharma’—if there is, it would turn into ‘Adharm’.  Barmer and Jaisalamer are our borders, and I will stand as a soldier,” he said.

In his campaign speeches in the state, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath called Hindu God Hanuman ‘Dalit’, called upon the public to usher in ‘Ramrajya in Rajasthan’.

In the reserved seat of Jaisalmer, BJP replaced sitting MLA Chottu Singh with Sang Singh Bhati against Congressman Roopram Meghwal, an ex-chief engineer at PHED.

Jaisalmer, which has 48,000 Muslim; 60,000 Rajputs and 32,000 SC voters, has 2.25 lakh voters.

Barmer

BJP and the Congress are fighting a triangular battle with rebels in Barmer’s seven assembly seats.

A 2016 report by the Panchayati Raj Ministry projects the district as one of country’s 250 most backward.

Congress claims the delay in the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd’s refinery project in Barmer has led to losses to the exchequer—a claim Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje counters by saying that her government had saved Rs 40,000 crore after ordering a fresh assessment.

In 2017, HPCL and the Rajasthan government had inked a revised MoU of Rs 43,129 crore for a refinery that will produce BS-VI fuel.

Sitting MLA Manvendra Singh move from the BJP to the Congress two months ago has caused a dent in BJP’s Rajput base.  BJP’s sitting MP  Sona Ram Choudhary, Raje’s Minister Amraram, MLA Gudamalani’s Ladu Ram Vishnoi are facing the threat of rising anti-incumbency. 

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