BJP’s Mali outreach before Rajasthan polls boomerangs as absent Gehlot has last laugh

But Maurya’s speech was soon interrupted with slogans of “Ashok Gehlot zindabad” raised by the gathering, which caught both the BJP leaders present on the stage as well as the event’s organisers off their guard.

The audience started sloganeering in support of Gehlot so vigorously that the organisers had to repeatedly appeal to them that it was a community programme that should not be turned into a political function.

The development again signalled the primacy of Gehlot’s leadership among Malis and related communities like Saini, Maurya, Kushwaha and Shakya in Rajasthan, even as only three MLAs, including the CM, of the state’s total 200 MLAs belong to these communities.

Malis held the mahasangam or mahapanchayat to demand 12 per cent reservation in jobs and education for the community besides increased political representation at the state and central levels. It was held over a month after many community members blocked the Jaipur-Agra highway in Bharatpur. This highway blockade had marked their second protest within the last one year over their quota demand, which was again called off after talks with the Gehlot administration.

It was this perceived discontent among Malis that the BJP leaders hoped to capitalise on at the Mali Mahasangam in the run-up to the state Assembly polls, slated for December, that apparently backfired.

Sources in the Mali community said, “The event was indeed organised by the community, but the audience started getting restive and uneasy after seeing BJP leaders making a pitch about their party.”

Among the BJP leaders present at the event were, besides Maurya, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Rajya Sabha MP Rajendra Gehlot, former minister Prabhu Lal Saini and MLA Avinash Gehlot.

In his address to the gathering, Rajendra Gehlot – who hails from Jodhpur, the CM’s home turf, and has contested, unsuccessfully, the Assembly polls against Gehlot – charged that the Congress leaders, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, had “denied” reservation to the OBC communities.

In a crucial state like UP, the BJP has successfully managed to forge a vote bank of non-dominant OBCs similar to Rajasthan’s Mali and related communities.

“Please, it has been enough. You are talking about Ashok Gehlot ji. He is our idol too. Since he is our idol, please don’t tarnish his image,” former BJP minister Prabhu Lal Saini told the audience as it burst into raising the slogan, “Ashok Gehlot zindabad”. There was little effect of Saini’s request on them.

By the time Maurya started his speech and mentioned that the BJP is the world’s largest political party, the crowd roared back with pro-Gehlot slogans.

Despite repeated pleas by the organisers and Maurya’s appeal for maintaining the community’s unity, many in the gathering continued to wave Gehlot’s posters and chant slogans in his favour.

Gehlot, who is also dubbed “jaadugar (magician)” given his background as his father was a professional magician, has often said publicly that it was nothing short of “magic” that despite not belonging to a dominant caste group, he could become the CM thrice in the midst of Rajasthan’s caste-driven politics.

While the CM did not attend the Mali Mahasangam, his son Vaibhav Gehlot, who is also the president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA), was present on the stage when the crowd cheered for his father while interrupting the BJP leaders’ speeches.

“It was with your blessings that Gehlot Sahab could become the CM for the third time,” Vaibhav told the audience to a loud applause.

Vaibhav also highlighted Gehlot’s contribution in the development of the Mali community, including his “key role in the creation of the Mahatma Jyotiba Phule Rashtriya Sansthan to unite the Mali community of Rajasthan during his stint as the Union textile minister”.

The communities such as Mali and Saini are thinly spread across the state, but unlike the dominant OBC groups such as Jats, they do not have large concentrations in multiple Assembly constituencies, which scupper their chances of securing Assembly tickets from major parties, which mostly field candidates from dominant castes.