New Delhi: Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje is facing a test on her home turf as two Lok Sabha seats and one assembly seat in Rajasthan went to polls on Monday. As the results come in on Thursday morning, Raje will not be the only one anxious for a victory in the all-crucial bypoll. Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) President Sachin Pilot, too, will be hoping for a favorable result.
Punters in Rajasthan favour the Congress in both Alwar and Ajmer parliamentary seats and the state Congress unit is also confident of a victory. "We are very confident of a victory in not only Alwar and Ajmer but also in the Mandalgarh assembly bypoll. If you look at it, there are 17 out of 200 assembly seats where voting has taken place - eight seats each in Alwar and Ajmer plus the Mandalgarh seat. This is a mini-election, a kind of a semi-final and we are confident the Congress will win," said Gopal Singh Shekhawat, Rajasthan Congress Vice President.
When asked if this is a prestige battle for Pilot, Shekhawat said, "Sachin Pilot has worked very hard for these bypolls. He has been in constant touch with the party workers on the ground and built their morale. Congress workers, under the leadership of Sachin Pilot, have gone to each and every village in the two Lok Sabha seats."
A senior leader in the Rajasthan Congress said Pilot had spent the last few months reworking the caste equations in Ajmer and Alwar. "A few decades ago, Gujjars used to vote for the Congress but had slowly shifted to BJP. But during these bypolls, when they saw Rajesh Pilot's son come to them, they started shifting to Congress en masse. Sachin has also taken great care to reach out to the Rajput community, which forms a substantial chunk of voters in both places," he said.
It's not just the Padmaavat issue, the leader said, claiming that Rajputs across the state are feeling ignored by the BJP. "Together, the Rajputs and Gujjars will drive Congress to victory in these bypolls," he said.
While some leaders want to portray Pilot as the chief architect of the Congress campaign in the event of a victory on both seats, particularly Ajmer, which Pilot represented in the Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014, in other sections, the knives have already been drawn if Pilot fails this crucial test.
Sources indicate that the camp led by former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is eager to have him declared the CM candidate months ahead of the polls. A loss in the bypolls will give Gehlot ammunition with which to approach Congress President Rahul Gandhi and it is something, sources said, Sachin Pilot is mindful of.
"Sachin Pilot is a young leader, but he does not have the kind of mass appeal that Gehlot does. Gehlot has decades-old links with workers across Rajasthan's districts and they will be ready to go to war for him," said another Rajasthan Congress leader.
He said the Gujarat result is also something that helped Gehlot earn Rahul’s trust. "We may not have won the Gujarat assembly elections but we surely gave the BJP a fright. And Ashok Gehlot was the architect of the campaign. Pilot has a lot to learn and I think the Congress can gain from a steady hand in this election. Raje's popularity is at an all-time low and this is a golden opportunity for us to bounce back," he said.
A source close to Pilot said the 40-year-old is playing his cards cautiously. "He is not desperate to be declared the CM-face of the party. The sole aim is to increase the Congress's base and win a majority in the upcoming elections. A victory in the bypolls will surely give a fillip to his standing," the source said.
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