In a Rajasthan seat, Big 3’s loyalists make it a triangular fight

In the constituency,  the three main candidates have an interesting background. Congress’s 2018 nominee Subhash Meel who was a Pilot loyalist is contesting for the BJP after not getting a ticket this time; sitting Independent MLA  Mahadeo Singh Khandela who is a Gehlot loyalist is the Congress’s candidate; while the BJP’s 2018 candidate Banshidhar Bajiya, a Raje supporter, is in the fray as an Independent after being denied a ticket by the party.

The scissors symbol that belonged to Mahadeo Singh, a former Union Minister, last time has been allotted to Bajiya, who was an MoS in Raje’s last government.Since 1972, Khandela has been held by either Bajiya’s father Gopal Singh, Mahadeo Singh, or Bajiya himself. The constituency has never been won by a person outside these two families in the last 11 Assembly elections spanning 51 years. It is this stranglehold that 45-year-old Meel is trying to break.

As a procession of Bajiya’s supporters makes its way through a busy market, the men draped in yellow dupattas and holding yellow flags with the scissors symbol dance to the tune of Rajasthani music hailing the Independent candidate belted out by DJs.

“The BJP nominee is a parachute candidate. He is unable to find a ground to land. Ninety per cent of BJP workers are with me. The party has made a mistake, you can rectify it,” 69-year-old Bajiya tells a crowd in the village of Dhani Gumansingh.

With more than 50,000 voters, Jats are the largest caste group in Khandela and all three major candidates are from the community.

The BJP fielded Meel a day after he joined the party earlier this month. He switched to the BJP only after the Congress decided to field the 80-year-old Mahadeo Singh who was part of a group of Independent MLAs that supported the Gehlot government during political crises.

“Last time, the present MLA swore by Balaji Maharaj that he would not contest elections any more. The person who doesn’t honour his promise to his ishtdev (worshipping deity) how will he honour his promises to you?” Meel asks on the campaign trail.

Mahadeo Singh, a six-time legislator from Khandela, meanwhile, has been getting big leaders such as state Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra to canvass for him. The octogenarian first won the constituency in 1980. “Press the hand symbol on November 25 and make the Congress victorious,” he says in Reengus town.

On the campaign trail, Bajiya vents out his bitterness at being replaced by a younger leader such as Meel. Bajiya’s father, the late Gopal Singh, was a three-time legislator from the constituency. “The sanskari home is there where the elders say and the youngsters listen. The home where youngers say and elders listen, you can understand what will happen in that home,” the BJP rebel says at a public meeting.