Parts of a party

With Congress rebels contesting in seven of Udaipur district’s nine constituencies alone, the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) has sent special AICC observers to the City of Lakes to try and stem the mutiny. Meanwhile, local BJP leaders have put their campaigns momentarily on hold to pacify rebels.

The Congress rebellion reached its zenith last week when Rajasthan Congress secretary Vinay Tyagi walked out of the party after being denied a ticket from the Mavli constituency. “Ticket allotment in this entire region was all wrong barring a few of the 28 candidates. Most are undeserving while those who have worked to promote the party even under the BJP’s tyrannical rule these five years were sidelined,” he said.

Incidentally, with a dominant tribal population, south Rajasthan had long remained a Congress bastion up to the Ashok Gehlot-led Congress regime in 1998, when the Congress won 28 of the 30 seats. A strong anti-Gehlot sentiment and rebellion in a few seats in 2003 gave the BJP the upper hand, helping it to sweep 23 of the 30 constituencies. The number of constituencies in the region was brought down to 28 by the delimitation exercise ahead of the 2008 polls. Congress leaders say that south Rajasthan was always the region the party banked on to form the government in past elections.

BJP leader from Udaipur, Anil Singhal admits that there are disgruntled party workers and candidates. “Party workers in Dungarpur and Banswada districts are unhappy about candidates selected there as they believe they are not from a BJP background. We are working hard to pacify these rebels and bring them back to the party line,” says Singhal.