25, mother of two, and an almost giant-killer: Rajasthan Cong’s LS surprise

Fielded from the Bharatpur seat, she is among the youngest of all candidates announced so far in the state.

Just months ago, she had fought a spirited election for Alwar’s Kathumar Assembly seat, losing to the BJP’s Ramesh Khinchi by just 409 votes. Both Sanjana and her opponent had polled over 79,000 votes in the November 2023 Assembly polls. In the six Assembly elections in Kathumar since 1998, the year she was born, the Congress had won the seat, reserved for Scheduled Castes, thrice — in 1998, 2003 and 2018 — while the BJP too has won it thrice — in 2008, 2013 and 2023.

“It was my first Assembly election. I had no experience, yet people gave me lots of love. What’s missing was just luck, nothing else,” she told The Indian Express.

What has worked in her favour, she says, is that wherever she goes, the people see her as their “daughter” or “bahu”. It also helps that she has a clean image and brings a freshness to the election, she says. “I’m personally in touch with everyone, and they don’t feel I’m a politician or someone different from them,” she says.

It was a combination of factors that propelled her candidature for the Lok Sabha polls. Apart from her spirited fight in the Assembly election, the Congress bigwigs have shied away from contesting the Lok Sabha polls as the BJP had bagged all 25 seats in the state over the past two elections, thereby opening up opportunities for young leaders like Sanjana.

She had also been engaged in Priyanka Gandhi’s “Ladki Hoon Lad Sakti Hoon” campaign, and has the backing of at least two tall Congress leaders in the region — AICC general secretary Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, and former MP and minister Vishvendra Singh of the erstwhile Bharatpur royal family.

“I want to thank the party high command, Bhanwar saheb and Maharaj (Vishvendra) saheb for giving the opportunity to such a small worker. I am indebted to them,” she says.

Just around the Assembly polls, she had also met Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi. “Priyanka ji spoke about promoting woman power, and how women should come forward and take what’s theirs. I also met Rahul ji around the Assembly election period, in Delhi,” Sanjana says.

Perhaps, the real inspiration is closer to home. She says her father Harbhajan is a thekedar (contractor) who has been an upsarpanch, while her uncle Kamal Singh has been a sarpanch of Samoochi village in Alwar. “Growing up, I saw my family, especially my father and uncle, serve the people. So I wanted to follow in their footsteps,” she says.

So even as she pursued her studies, her political aspirations did not leave her. She says she completed her BA from Gandhi Jyoti College in Bhusawar, Bharatpur, which is affiliated with Maharaja Surajmal Brij University, also in Bharatpur, and then got a degree in Law from Lords University in Alwar.

Her first electoral contest was for the Alwar zila parishad in 2021, where she won from ward number 29 by 4,661 votes. On getting the Lok Sabha ticket from Bharatpur, she says that she originally hails from Bhusawar under Bharatpur’s Weir Assembly seat.

As she gears up for her toughest battle yet, she says her approach will be a bit different this time. “I lost the Assembly polls by a slim margin, but it has taught me a few things. The strategy will be a bit different this time. The main things are management and strengthening of party workers.”

Like the last few elections, it will be a Koli versus Jatav election in Bharatpur. Sanjana faces Ramswaroop Koli of the BJP this time. In the 2019 and 2014 polls, the BJP had fielded Ranjeeta Koli and Bahadur Singh Koli, while the Congress had fielded Abhijeet Kumar Jatav and Suresh Jatav, respectively.

The last time the Congress held the Bharatpur seat was in 2009, when Ratan Singh had won against the BJP’s Khemchand, with 53.76% of the votes. However, in 2014 and 2019, the BJP cornered 60.17% and 61.62% of the vote share, respectively.

Besides father Harbhajan and mother Ramvati Devi, her family consists of her brothers and husband Kaptan Singh, a constable with Rajasthan Police posted in Alwar’s Thanagazi. The couple has two kids, a six-year-old son and a four-year-old daughter.