In this BJP bastion, Congress faces an uphill task

The Lok Sabha polls 2019 will witness a battle between friends turned foes on the Jhalawar-Baran seat, which has hogged limelight since 1989, when former chief minister Vasundhara Raje won from here.


After taking over the reins of the state BJP and being elected the chief minister in 2003, she passed on the LS seat to her son

Dushyant Singh

, who has represented it in the Lok Sabha since 2004. Prior to that, Raje had represented the seat for five terms—1989-1991, 1991-1996, 1996-1998, 1998-1999 and 1999-2004.

Dushyant Singh, who is himself seeking a fourth term, faces a contest against Congress candidate Pramod Sharma, a BJP rebel. It is said that Sharma was once a close aide of Raje and Dushyant’s friend.

Things turned sour after Sharma became one of the strongest critics of Raje in Jhalawar. Just ahead of the 2018 assembly polls, the former ABVP leader even led a campaign against the former chief minister. Upset over repeatedly being denied a ticket, Sharma parted ways with the saffron party and joined the Congress before the recent assembly polls.

The Congress had managed to record a win only four times since 1952, its last win coming in 1984. The seat was represented twice by Bharatiya Jana Sangh and twice by Janata Party. It is an uphill task that Sharma faces, given the fact that the seat is considered a BJP bastion.

Raje, a legislator from

Jhalrapatan

in

Jhalawar district

, continues to hold a strong influence on the seat and the local BJP unit supports her loyally. Though Dushyant might not be as popular as his mother, despite having represented Jhalawar for three terms, he has successfully managed to make it his stronghold. They share the claims for infrastructure development and industrial growth in the constituency, which has changed much in the past three decades. A fourth term might pave the way for Dushyant to be rewarded with a cabinet rank, which he was denied in 2014, if the NDA comes to power again.

On the other hand, the local Congress unit is not too happy about Sharma, a BJP turncoat, being given a ticket. The party workers stand divided in their support to Sharma, which is likely to pose a challenge for him.

Much like the case is in the Hadauti belt, farmers’ distress remains one of the major concerns in the Jhalawar-Baran constituency. Farmers here are unhappy about the fact that the sitting MP failed to give the much-needed push for agro-based industry and agri food park which was proposed to be set up in Baran. The requirement for storage facilities for the agro produce like citrus fruits too remains to be addressed along with the demand for better minimum support prices.