Alwar/Sikar/Chomu: In a far-flung village in Rajasthan’s Sikar district named Gungara, where proper roads are not easy to find, a group of women with their heads covered with a veil gather. Some of them wear a scarf with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) lotus poll symbol.
Seeing a microphone, they start singing a song in unison in the local dialect, in support of the BJP.
When asked who they see as chief minister of Rajasthan after Saturday’s assembly polls, Koyal Devi, in her 60s, replies: “Narendra Modi ko vote denge (we will vote for Narendra Modi).”
When prodded further, one of the younger women in the background, Suvita, says in a feeble voice: “Vasundhara”, referring to Vasundhara Raje, the two-time former state CM and one of the BJP’s most popular leaders in Rajasthan.
As the other women join her in chorusing “Vasundhara”, Suvita now boldly adds: “Gehlot ki jagah Vasundhara ko chunege. Badhiya kaam kiya hai usne (We will choose Vasundhara instead of (incumbent CM and Congress leader Ashok) Gehlot. She has done good work).”
For the BJP, Raje remains the only leader people in the villages are familiar with — apart from PM Modi. That’s as much because Raje was the CM for two terms and has been the BJP’s face in Rajasthan for two decades, as because other BJP readers have failed to rise up as mass leaders.
Over the past five years, the party has tried to promote a number of leaders in the state in a bid to create an alternative leadership. These include Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, Alwar MP Balaknath Yogi, state president C.P. Joshi, former state president Satish Poonia, Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Rajsamand MP Diya Kumari.
But none figured in public discourse as ThePrint travelled across several state districts, including Alwar, Jaipur and Sikar, to gauge the public mood.
While opinions about her vary, Raje’s popularity among women voters remains intact.
In Alwar district’s Sarangpura village, in their mud house next to a half-made road, Jyoti stands with her mother. A graduate, she aspires to be a teacher one day.
Speaking to ThePrint, as her mother shies away from talking after saying “we will vote for Modi”, Jyoti believes the main issue in the village is electricity and water.
About the CM’s post, she says: “As a woman, I would like to see Vasundhara Raje as the chief minister. Hers was a good tenure. She undertook development.”
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‘Anyone but Vasundhara’
There is also a section of voters willing to vote for “anyone but Vasundhara”.
In Jaipur district’s Chomu assembly seat, Suyash Kumar Meena, a labourer, believes that the people are ready to change the government again this time. But, he adds, they do not want Raje if the BJP manages to wrest power from the Congress.
“People want change. The BJP had (earlier) done more work compared to this (Congress) government. The BJP had Vasundharaji. But now she is not the face (of the party). As far as people are concerned, they do not want to see her again (as CM),” says Meena.
Jitendra Sharma, who works at a bank in Chomu, believes that “for common people, it’s their duty to find their own face in the chief minister and they will find it, be it Vasundhara or Diya Kumari”.
In Alwar district’s Thanagazi constituency, when asked about the CM contender, Harkrishan, a farmer from Angari village, quickly answers: “Vasundhara is not good. She has become the chief minister twice. Someone else should be given a chance. The party can pick a CM of its choice, but not Vasundhara.”
The reason, according to him, is that those who keep coming to power again and again do not work much.
At the tea stall where Harkrishan speaks to ThePrint, the owner joins the conversations saying: “If the BJP comes to power, it should just not be Vasundhara. During her tenure there was a lot of corruption. Anyone is acceptable but not Vasundhara because of corruption.”
Hameer Meena, the tea stall owner, goes a step farther and says: “A new face is required, whether it is the BJP or the Congress (in power).”
BJP workers chorus ‘high command will pick CM’
For BJP workers, the party high command’s wish is their command.
“We can’t decide the chief minister. It is the party that decides,” says Ratiram Gurjar, a BJP booth worker from Sarangpura village in Alwar.
Manohar Singh Shekhawat, another booth-level worker from Ramnagar village, adds: “The party’s decision will be acceptable to all.”
Echoing the views of his fellow workers in the Alwar Urban seat, the BJP’s mandal-level president Manoj Chauhan says: “This will be decided in the meeting of MLAs. Whatever decision is taken, it will be acceptable to us all.”
Alwar and Sikar districts of Rajasthan together send as many as 19 members to the 200-member state assembly. The BJP performed poorly in these districts, winning just two seats (Mundawar and Alwar Urban) in the 2018 election. The Congress won 12 seats, the Bahujan Samaj Party two and Independents three.
It was a significant drop from five years ago in 2013, when the BJP led by Raje had stormed to power in the state, winning 163 seats in the assembly and 14 from these two districts. That time, the Congress had been restricted to three seats.
“Vasundharaji did not do anything wrong. She undertook development but if someone like Yogiji (Uttar Pradesh BJP leader Yogi Adityanath) comes (as CM), that is even better,” says another BJP worker, adding hastily that “whatever the party says will be acceptable to us all”.
Raje vs Gehlot
For Sanjay Chawri, also a farmer in Sarangpura, electricity is the main issue.
“Though the Gehlot government has waived our electricity bills, electricity has stopped coming. How will we give water (to farms)? There was supposed to be har ghar nal (a tap in each household) but we have got no tap,” he rues.
Lack of electricity is the reason why Chawri wants Raje as CM because he got “seven-eight hours of electricity” when she was at the helm in Rajasthan.
Preparing for a competitive exam in Chomu Purohitan village near the iconic Khatu Shyam Mandir in Rajasthan’s Sikar, Nikhil Parekh says: “For the youth, the main issue is paper leaks,” referring to cases of recruitment exam papers being leaked in the state.
However, he adds: “Barring the paper leak issue, Gehlot’s tenure was fine.”
For him, the BJP’s face in the state is Raje. “In the BJP, Vasundhara seems to be the only CM contender. She is still the face of the party.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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