Jaipur: With the second phase of voting in Rajasthan on Friday, the elections for all 25 Lok Sabha seats will be over, but the entire election campaign in the state was dominated by national issues. Local issues like water crisis, special status for the state, question paper leak and others couldn't get prominence. Elections have been held in two phases in Rajasthan. Voting for 12 seats in the first phase was on April 19 and for the remaining 13 seats in the second phase will be held on Friday.
The main contesting political parties BJP and Congress put their full effort into campaigning in the state. PM Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah took charge of the campaign with CM Bhajan Lal Sharma. While Congress party's campaign was led by the central leadership in the first phase but then handed over to the local leaders in the second phase. Senior leaders of Congress like Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi held rallies in the first phase and the party released its election manifesto in the state as well.
Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project key issue
During the campaign, local issues like the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project to overcome the water crisis, question paper leak, law and order situation etc. were mentioned, but the election campaign did not seem to be focused on these.
The speeches of PM Narendra Modi remained the core issue throughout the campaign; In the first phase, his speeches focused on the achievements of the Central Government. Along with this, he also talked about the manifesto of Congress and stated that it is influenced by the thinking of the Muslim League. Along with this, he was also seen clarifying his stand on the opposition's allegations of amending the Constitution, While in the second phase, he made statements like snatching of Mangalsutra from women and Muslim reservation of Congress voted to power.
Agni Veer scheme scheme another key issue
On the other hand, Congress leaders also could not raise any major issue of Rajasthan. Rajasthan has a good number of army personnel, hence issue of the Agni Veer scheme was raised, but the matter was not communicated effectively. Congress's focus also remained limited to either criticizing the PM's speeches or promoting the party's manifesto. Rahul Gandhi held only two election rallies, in which he mentioned only the manifesto, whereas Priyanka Gandhi held two-three meetings, but did not talk much on local issues.
Political analyst Rajeev Jain said that usually, national issues dominate the Loksabha elections and in Rajasthan since the present government had taken some action before the elections on issues like ERCP and paper leaks so these no longer remained very effective. The Congress looked fragmented and demoralised after losing the assembly election and could not raise any major issue to target the state government.
