Months before the Rajasthan Assembly elections, the Congress is planning to corner the BJP and repeat its winning performance in eastern Rajasthan by invoking the issue of the Eastern Rajasthan Canal Project (ERCP), which has been a subject of political sparring between the two parties for the past few years. Since Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Deputy CM Sachin Pilot struck a truce earlier this month, the Congress is steaming ahead with efforts to strengthen the organisation and has made long-pending appointments of state and district office bearers. During the recently held meetings with party workers and All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, the Govind Singh Dotasra-led Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) decided it would launch a protest over ERCP covering the 13 districts in the state that would benefit from the project. “In the meetings with the state Congress leadership, it has been decided that we will take the issue of ERCP to every block, the panchayat in these 13 districts. A Congress office-bearer who will be the district in-charge will oversee the protests. We will involve the public in these districts and tell them how the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in the Centre backtracked on its promise to declare ERCP as a national project,” Rajasthan Congress general secretary and spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi told The Indian Express. Chaturvedi added that the protests would involve marches, campaigning through various means such as hoardings and posters, along with public outreach. The protests seek to achieve the objective of helping the party retain its support base in eastern Rajasthan, a region where it performed exceptionally well in the 2018 Assembly elections. In the polls, the BJP won only one seat in the districts of Bharatpur, Dausa, Dholpur, Karauli and Sawai Madhopur, which collectively have 24 Assembly constituencies. When contacted, BJP MP from Tonk-Sawai Madhopur and the party's state vice president Sukhbir Singh Jaunapuria alleged that the Congress government was not fulfilling the drinking water projects it had already promised in eastern Rajasthan and said that the public would not be influenced by the protests. Gehlot has been pushing for national project status for ERCP and has written several letters to the Central government. Announced during the previous BJP regime in the state, Gehlot’s predecessor Vasundhara Raje had also asked for the same. While very little work was done on the project owing to its high costs, the ERCP is crucial to ensuring water for drinking and irrigation in the 13 districts. The project aims to harvest surplus water available during the rainy season in rivers in southern Rajasthan such as Chambal and its tributaries such as Kunnu, Parvati, and Kalisindh, and use this water in southeastern districts where there is a scarcity of water for drinking and irrigation. The ERCP will help fulfil the long-term irrigation and drinking water needs of 13 districts-Jhalawar, Baran, Kota, Bundi, Sawai Madhopur, Ajmer, Tonk, Jaipur, Karauli, Alwar, Bharatpur, Dausa, and Dholpur. In recent years, the project has become a contentious issue, with both the Congress and BJP trading barbs over it. While the Congress has accused the BJP of stalling Rajasthan’s development by not declaring ERCP a national project, the BJP has said that the Gehlot government is doing politics over the issue and fooling the public. Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Gehlot have numerously attacked each other over ERCP. The reason cited by the CM for wanting the ERCP to be a national project is that its estimated cost is around Rs 40,000 crore, which, he said, cannot possibly be borne just by the state government. In this year’s budget, Gehlot said the state would continue its work on ERCP with its resources even as it waits for the Centre to declare it a national project. He also made a provision of Rs 13,000 crore in the current financial year’s Budget for various works under the project. “The Congress is only doing politics over the issue of ERCP. The Congress party has consistently lied that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to give national project status to ERCP. When Gajendra Singh Shekhawat wanted to hold a meeting with the government, ministers or the chief minister didn’t attend. Even the former Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh had objections to some aspects of the ERCP related to the division of river water. The protests by the Congress will have no effect as the public in these 13 districts know the true face of Congress and will vote the incumbent government out in the upcoming elections,” said state BJP vice president Mukesh Dadhich.
