JAIPUR: The BJP seems to have taken a huge risk in Rajasthan, repeating 14 parliamentarians on 16 seats it declared on Sunday, despite its experience of losing the Assembly elections last December in which it could win just 73 of the 200 seats after having swept all 25 Lok Sabha seats in 2014.
The 14 include Vasundhara Raje’s son Dushyant Singh, Central Minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, PP Choudhary, Arjun Ram Meghwal and Gajendra Singh, who the BJP claimed would sail clear on what they expect to be a repeat of the Narendra Modi wave.
Rajasthan has had a long trend, historically, of a party doing well in the Assembly doing better in the succeeding Lok Sabha polls-the 2014 results being the latest proof. But the BJP, which won 163 seats in the 2013 Assembly now has just 73 seats. BJP actually trailed badly in the Parliamentary constituencies of five union ministers — four of whom have been fielded again.
Narayan Bareth, a political observer said, “The BJP might feel that the narrative has changed since the Assembly elections last year with Modi at the helm and the Pulwama massacre and the air strikes across the international borders in Pakistan’s Balakot providing it an advantage and restoring BJP’s dynamism. But then, he said, “the party has to be wary of anger over unemployment and farm crisis”.
In the Assembly polls, however, the winning margin of Congress was just .50% though it won over 100 seats. This narrow difference, BJP leaders feel, will be bridged with Modi charisma, despite the fact that in 10 LS constituencies- Jaipur rural, Jaipur city, Jodhpur, Bharatpur, Barmer, Tonk Sawai Madhopur, Sikar, Churu, Alwar, Ganganagar and Jhunjhunu-the party suffered massive defeats.
The BJP candidates, however, would be up for a serious challenge this time, more so BJP’s Gajendra Singh Shekhawat — a rival of Vasundhara Raje — who would be taking on Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav in his designated seat.