After a dismal showing in the Lok Sabha election, discord within the Rajasthan BJP grows.
While some officials expressed concerns about the distribution of tickets, others claimed that the BJP’s defeat in the state was due in part to a lack of leadership and oversight of party operations.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lost 11 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan. This has led to increased internal dissension within the party and exposed the high brass in questioning policies and expressing frustration about alleged marginalization of important workers.
While some officials expressed concerns about the distribution of tickets, others claimed that the BJP’s defeat in the state was due in part to a lack of leadership and oversight of party operations.
The BJP gained 14 seats in the most recent general elections, which is 10 fewer than it did in 2019. After receiving zero seats in the last elections, the Congress was able to gain eight seats this time. Three parties secured one seat each: Bharat Adivasi Party, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party, and CPI (M). The northern and eastern regions of the state saw the most losses for the BJP.
Even while there were whispers of disapproval and factionalism inside the state BJP prior to the elections, the party’s precipitous drop in popularity has increased hostilities to the point that a number of leaders are now doubting the state unit’s ability to function.
Recently, Swami Sumedhanand, the former MP from Sikar who lost to Amraram of the CPI(M) in the elections, claimed that party workers were not able to spread the word about the welfare initiatives to the public. In addition, he questioned the party’s ticket allocation policy and its choice to not field former Churu MP Rahul Kaswan, which party insiders assert was a contributing factor in the party’s decline in support from the Jat population. Later, Kaswan entered the Congress and emerged victorious in the seat polls.
“Not fielding Kaswan was a bad call,” Sumedhanand remarked. “The political rivalry between Kaswan and senior leader and former MLA Rajendra Rathore resulted in the cancellation of Kaswan’s ticket, sending the wrong message and infuriating the Jats,” he continued.
Rathore had lost the assembly elections from Churu last year and had accused Kaswan of sabotage.
“Although they were not denied tickets for the Lok Sabha elections, other leaders were also accused of sabotage during the state polls,” Sumedhanand stated.
Sumedhanand further asserted that the voters did not approve of the Center’s Agnipath program for enlisting people in the military. One of the states where a large number of military personnel reside is Rajasthan.
“The plan would have been more beneficial if it had been changed before the elections. He claimed that the Communist Party and the Congress had succeeded in instilling in the state’s youth a bad opinion of the recruitment program.
Jats, who are primarily farmers, are heavily concentrated in the northern belt, also known as the Shekhawati region, which includes the districts of Jhunjhunu, Churu, and Sikar, as well as the neighboring Nagaur district. Furthermore, it is customary in these areas to send a high number of young people to join the armed forces.
Sumedhanand further claimed that Vasundhara Raje, a prominent politician and former chief minister, was ignored in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections despite her vigorous campaigning for the party during the assembly elections. Her noticeable absence from the election campaign caused some people to take notice.
Despite being our senior leader, she refrained from running for office in the general elections. The party would have benefited if she had done that, he claimed.
A few days prior, Devi Singh Bhati, a prominent Bikaner leader, had publicly denounced Rathore, claiming that it was because to him that Kaswan was denied a poll ticket.
The BJP lost a number of seats because of Rathore. The Jats banded together against the BJP as a result of the party losing Kaswan’s ticket, he claimed, harming it.
He said that Rathore tampered with the allocation of tickets for seats that the party ultimately lost.
Bhati, who is close to Raje, said that “elected representatives were not being listened to by bureaucracy that was running the government.”
Similar to Sumedhanand, Shubhkaran Chaudhary, the BJP candidate for Jhunjhunu, admitted that the Agnipath initiative had a negative impact on voters. “A huge number of Shekhawati residents desired to enlist in the military. However, they lost interest in the initiative when it was introduced. This undoubtedly affected the results, Chaudhary claimed. Chaudhary was beaten by Brijendra Singh Ola of the Congress.
According to a senior leader who wished to remain anonymous, nobody was in charge of the election campaign. “The election coordinators were not appointed on time. Most members of the core committee were occupied with contesting their individual elections. Thus, nobody was available to oversee and manage the campaign. In addition, prominent figures such as Raje were marginalized,” the unnamed leader remarked.
BJP spokesman Laxmikant Bharadwaj stated that the party will act as needed in response to the mounting discontent.
“The BJP evaluates its performance with every victory and setback. The fact that the BJP received 50% of the vote despite losing seats in Rajasthan indicates that all castes and communities supported us. We know why we lost, and the administration and party are doing all within their power to make things right. Where necessary, action will be taken, according to Bharadwaj.
