In Rajasthan, appeasement charges against Congress played role in BJP win

Tijara saw a close contest, with both Alwar MP Mahant Balaknath and the Congress’s Imran Khan getting over 1 lakh votes each, but Balaknath eventually beat Khan by a margin of 6,173 votes. Udami Ram of the Aazad Samaj Party (Kanshi Ram) got 8,054 votes, possibly damaging Congress prospects.

Jaipur’s Hawa Mahal, which also witnessed a close contest, saw the BJP’s Balmukundacharya edge out the Congress’s R R Tiwari by 974 votes, while AIMIM state president Jameel Khan got 588 votes, and the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) Pappu Qureshi 573. Together, they got 1,161 votes, slightly above the Congress’s margin of defeat.

Another “mahant” to have won the election is former minister Otaram Dewasi, who was the Cow Welfare Minister during the last BJP government led by Vasundhara Raje. With 1,14,729 votes, he beat CM Ashok Gehlot’s advisor Sanyam Lodha from Sirohi by 35,805 votes.

Udaipur, which witnessed the killing of tailor Kanhaiyalal last year, with the BJP consistently raising the murder, was retained by the BJP. The seat, held by the BJP’s tallest leader in Mewar, Gulab Chand Kataria, had been vacated earlier this year after he was moved to Assam as Governor. Here, the BJP’s Tarachand Jain won by 97,466 votes, defeating Congress national spokesperson Gourav Vallabh by 32,771 votes.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP president J P Nadda, Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma and other star campaigners of the BJP had raised the Kanhaiyalal issue in their rallies. In his first address after taking charge as BJP state president earlier this year, C P Joshi had said that the state government was responsible for Kanhaiyalal’s murder.

Another issue raised by the BJP was the Rajasthan High Court’s acquittal of all four men who were sentenced to death in 2019 over the 2008 bomb blasts, in which 71 people were killed and 185 injured. In a symbolic move during the campaign, PM Modi had taken out a roadshow in Jaipur along the route of the bomb blasts.

The BJP had also raised cases of violence against temples and temple priests. For four years between 2019 and 2022, as many as 104 such cases were registered in the state, in which 15 priests died — 10 were murdered, while five died by suicide. Then there was the Sanatan Dharma row, and the offer to visit the Ayodhya Ram Temple made by BJP leaders.

There have also been some cases of communal tension in the state, as well as prohibitions around religious gatherings. It prompted the PM to say at a rally in Jodhpur in October, “I want to ask, what was the CM doing when Jodhpur was burning during the riots? When there was violence and innocent people were being killed, what were the Congress leaders doing? Is appeasement the first and last policy of the Congress? Ram Navami, Parshuram Jayanti, Hanuman Jayanti — there is no festival in which news of stone pelting is not received from Rajasthan.”

Complementing these issues were measures like the appointment of MP Ramesh Bidhuri as the party’s in-charge of Tonk district, which has a sizable Muslim population. This came days after he had hurled communal slurs against a Muslim MP in Parliament.

On its part, the Congress tried to push voters to not be distracted by emotive issues. Addressing a rally in Rajasthan’s Dausa, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “You have to understand the BJP’s perspective, because every time there are elections, they talk of religion and caste, which are connected to your hearts and emotions.”