Cong popularity on test in Rajasthan by-polls

JAIPUR, FEBRUARY 2: The popularity of the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan would be put on test in the Assembly elections...

JAIPUR, FEBRUARY 2: The popularity of the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress government in Rajasthan would be put on test in the Assembly elections to six constituencies scheduled for February 17. These have been necessitated by the election of five BJP members and one Congress member to the Lok Sabha in the last polls.

The six seats for which by-polls are taking place are Sadulpur, Raisingh Nagar, Mundawar, Asind, Aspur and Nimbahera. Of these, the Aspur seat was vacated by a ruling Congress member, while the rest were vacated by BJP members.

Though other parties have also fielded their candidates, the fight is mainly between the Congress and the BJP. Since both parties have fielded local leaders, none of the seats will witness a high-profile contest. However the contests are expected to be keen. Even as the Congress stakes may not appear to be really high given the fact that it has to defend just one seat, it cannot make do with just one keeping in mind the basic fact that the Congress had a landslide victory inthe last Assembly polls, winning 153 of the 200 seats. It has to maintain this trend to re-affirm that it is as popular as it was 14 months ago.

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BJP’s Satish Poonia and Congress’s Ram Singh Poonia would fight it out in the Jat-dominated Sadulpur seat vacated by BJP’s Ram Singh Kaswa. The BJP candidate, who headed its state youth wing earlier, had rebelled during the Assembly elections in 1998 after he was denied the ticket. However, he soon gave up the rebellions posture.

In the Raisingh Nagar (reserved) constituency, the contest is between Ishwar Singh Meghwal (BJP) and Sohan Lal Naik (Congress).

Two liquor kings, O.P. Yadav of the Congress and Dharampal Chaudhry of the BJP would contest the Mundawar seat of Alwar district. By all indications, it is going to be a tough battle-ground with money, liquor and muscle-power coming in to full-play.

The Asind seat would see a fight between Hangami Lal Mewar (Congress) and Ram Lal Gujar (BJP).