Congress hits bull's eye on caste calculations

JAIPUR: The right caste combinations worked in favour of the Congress party in the bypolls. It worked at least at Nasirabad and Weir constituencies though Congress has also won the Surajgarh seat. From Congress getting an unexpected result in front of the ruling BJP government and clinching victory on three seats to attributing it to BJP's poor governance, all this seem to indicate that Congress party, especially leaders like PCC chief Sachin Pilot, did their caste calculations right.
Congress workers were elated after the results for the by elections were announced on Tuesday and discussed how caste calculations, poor performance of BJP in the state so far and the way Congress run welfare schemes were abandoned by the BJP government worked in favour of the party.
"The results on the three seats clearly indicate that Jats in the state are with the Congress party," said Suresh Chaudhary, general secretary, Pradesh Congress Committee. "In all these seats, Jats have voted in numbers in favour of our party," Chaudhary added.
Nasirbad seat is dominated by Gujjar voters and is followed by Jats. In the 2013 assembly polls, BJP's Sanwar Lal Jat defeated Congress candidate Mahendra Singh with a margin of nearly 28,900 votes. Singh lost the election despite the fact that he represented the Gujjar community. However, this time on Tuesday, Ramnarayan Dudi, a Gujjar candidate, won the election.
Political pundits at Nasirabad are saying that the Gujjar reservation issue was the main reason behind BJP's defeat and the mounting tension among the community gave them a clear and loud message to bring an MLA from their caste. "The results have clearly shown that Gujjars along with Jats have voted for the Congress party. Other factors like inactive BJP government in the state that has failed to deliver so far have worked but yes the caste combination especially Gujjars and Jaat votes together have made this seat a cakewalk for Congress party," said Sanwar Mal Gujjar, a Congress worker in Nasirabad constituency on Tuesday.
Similar was the scene at Weir as Congress fielded an SC candidate, a Jaatav, who are the leading caste in Weir constituency. "We knew that Jaatav will vote for Bhajan Lal Jaatav but Jats, who are the second leading caste in this region, too have voted for Jaatav candidate was surprising. It has been the bastion of BJP in the last four assembly polls, but this time voters were intelligent enough to vote out BJP from here," said Vishvendra Singh, Congress MLA from Deeg-Kumher.
He said there were nearly 40,000 Jaatavs and nearly 25,000 Jats who have voted in favour of Congress party as they are disillusioned with the BJP and its work in the state in the last nine months.
Likewise, at the Surajgarh seat, it was a Jat (Shrawan Kumar) v/s outsider Jat (Digambar Singh). At this constituency though the victory margin of Shrawan Kumar was nearly 3,000 but it was more than satisfactory for him as he had lost to Santosh Ahlawat by a margin of 50,000 votes in the 2013 assembly polls.