Buta pins hope on ST, SC support for victory

JAIPUR: Former Union minister Buta Singh, who was re-inducted in the Congress party in January this year, refused the party's nomination from the Jalore-Sirohi reserved seat. He is now contesting as an Independent with the hope that he will win the seat as he did in 1998 when it was an Scheduled Caste (reserved) seat. In 2009 also he contested as an Independent, but lost to BJP's Devji Patel in a close contest. Singh, in the last election, fought because a large number of people from the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste supported him. Currently, the Jalore Lok Sabha constituency comprises eight Vidhan Sabha (legislative assembly) segments. These are: Ahore, Jalore, Bhinmal, Sanchore, Raniwara, Sirohi, Pindwara-Abu and Reodar.The STs and SCs who enjoy reservation and have 24 and 34 seats reserved between themselves in the assembly can prove to be a deadly combination with their presence in the Jalore-Sirohi Lok Sabha constituency. How the combination of STs and SCs can matter in the general seats is reflected most in Jalore district which has one reserved seat for SC in the assembly. In the assembly constituency of Jalore the percentage of SCs is about 20 per cent and that of the STs is 8 per cent.In Ahore, Bhinmal and Raniwara assembly segments the large presence of both STs and SCs would make the situation challenging for Congress's Udai Lal Anjna and the BJP's Devji Patel.In Ahore, the percentage of SCs is about 20 per cent, but the STs are over 11 per cent and the combined figure of about 31 per cent makes the dalits a formidable combination. This is a massive number of the downtrodden class and they matter the most. In Bhinmal, the combined strength of the dalits is 30 per cent.In 1980 the erstwhile Jalore seat which was a general seat became a SC (reserved) seat. Buta Singh was fielded from this constituency by the Congress because of insurgency in Punjab in 1984 and he won under a strong Congress wave.Singh was given political refuge in 1984, but he made Jalore his permanent political abode and in all won four times and lost four times. He is in the fray depending largely on the STs and SCs votes which are around 4.50 lakh. In fact this seat has been lucky for outsiders as on nine occasions outsiders have won the seat.