Jaipur: Central Rajasthan with the capital city of Jaipur, the holy city of Ajmer, and the coaching hub of Kota is mostly the urbanite region of the state.
The assembly election in this region is likely to be a constant between the beneficiaries of populist schemes of the ruling Congress and the traditional urbanite vote bank of the BJP
Geopolitical significance of Central Rajasthan
Central Rajasthan includes the districts of Jaipur, Ajmer, Bhilwara, Tonk, Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar. These districts have a total of 55 assembly constituencies. The election results of 2018 showed that though BJP had an upper hand with 27 seats Congress was not far behind with 24, seats. The rest of the four seats went to the independents who were rebellion Congress leaders.
This time the ruling Congress is in the field with some major development projects like the Chambal River Front in Kota, the development of Brahma temple at Pushkar in Ajmer and City Park and some other utility projects in Jaipur, although, the urban development minister Shanti Dhariwal had to face allegations of even Congress MLAs of taking all the urban development funds to his home city Kota and ignoring other cities.
Apart from these projects, the party is banking on populist schemes like free electricity up to 100 units, free ration kits, an employment guarantee scheme for the urban poor and a welfare fund for Gig workers.
On the other hand, the opposition BJP is pushing the issues of incomplete projects, appeasement politics and law and order situation. The party has a strong hold on general cast urban votes and is hopeful to get good support this time.
These districts have some prominent faces of Rajasthan politics like former CM Vasundhara Raje who contested from Jhalrapatan, a seat in Jhalawar, former deputy CM Sachin Pilot who contested from Tonk last time, the senior most ministers and Ashok Gehlot loyalists like Shanti Dhariwal and Mahesh Joshi and Former state president of BJP Satish Punia. Election on their seats certainly going to make headlines.
The opposition BJP has made the election more interesting by fielding its prominent MPs like Diya Kumari, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Bhagirath Choudhary on three seats of Jaipur and Ajmer.
Central Rajasthan important for notable leaders
One more important factor that will make the election interesting in this region is the stronghold of former CM Vasundhara Raje and former deputy CM Sachin Pilot in some of the constituencies. Both the leaders have been sidelined by their respective parties and if their loyalists don't get tickets the situation will complicate the equations in some of the seats. It can be seen on the Jhotwara seat of Jaipur where Raje loyalist Rajpal Singh Shekhawat has been denied a ticket by the party and protests are going on against the decision of the party.
The political observers believe that Congress had performed well in the last election on many of the seats that were like a other BJP, so this time the election battle is going to be interesting in central Rajasthan. Political analyst Rajiv Tiwari said, "the Congress party is in power and has offered many schemes and projects to woo the voters but law and order is a big issue in urban areas and BJP is pushing this with its stronghold on urban votes, so an interesting election battle can be expected."
