Gehlot fails to keep flock together on home turf

Jodhpur: The BJP won 8 Assembly seats in Ashok Gehlot’s home district of Jodhpur, puring cold water over his efforts to win all the 10 seats in the district.Gehlot spent thousands of crores in the name of development in Jodhpur and visited frequently till the day of polling, but could not save 6 seats from slipping to the BJP side this election.He, however, succeeded in snatching Bhopalgarh seat from RLPs’ Pukhraj Garg, though he lost Jodhpur City, Luni, Bilara, Shergarh, Osian, and Lohawat. Divya Maderna lost Osian by a margin of 2,807 votes while Kisnaram Bishnoi lost Lohawat by 10,549 votes to the BJP’s Gajendra Singh Khinvsar.The losses can be attributed to Gehlot’s failure in keeping his flock together. In the run-up to the election, his close aides, like former mayor Rameshwar Dadhich, RIICO director Sunil Parihar, divisional spokesperson Ajay Trivedi, and many oldies parted ways with Gehlot.Gehlot’s pick for the Soorsagar seat also came as a major dampener, resented not only by party workers in Soorsagar but also by core voters of Congress. This was reflected in the huge margin of loss that Congress candidate Shehjad Khan suffered here.Gehlot’s old confidante Dadhich, who this time actively campaigned for Gehlot’s opponent in Sardarpura, BJP’s Mahendra Singh Rathore, proved to be a major reason behind the shrunk margin of Gehlot’s victory.“If you have bad civic conditions, overflowing drainage and sewerage, broken roads and poor traffic arranagements, despite the local MLA being the state’s chief minister, you can understand what he has done for his own city,” said Dadhich.Ajay Trivedi, who left the Congress and contested from Jodhpur City on RLP ticket, said that Gehlot had always liked ‘yes men’ around him and not those who dare to contradict him or give him any suggestion. We also published the following articles recently