New Delhi: On the campaign trail in Ajmer, ahead of the Lok Sabha bypolls in Rajasthan, Congress candidate Raghu Sharma approached the dais and greeted a middle-aged woman called Nirmal Kunwar with respect.
Kunwar is the mother of deceased gangster Anandpal Singh Didwana, a dreaded gangster who gave sleepless nights to Rajasthan police and evaded cops for over a year.
For those outside of Rajasthan, a major party candidate paying obeisance to the mother of an alleged gangster may come as a bit of a shock but for the Rajputs of Ajmer, this was a sign of changing caste equations in politics. For them, Anandpal was less of a gangster and more of a ‘Robin Hood’ figure.
Rajputs have traditionally been seen as supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), but in the 2018 bypolls, the Congress tested a social engineering experiment it can employ in the upcoming assembly polls in the state.
While the BJP got closer to Jats this time, by fielding deceased MP Sanwarlal Jat’s son Ramswaroop Lamba from Ajmer, the Congress tried to stitch together a Rajput+Gujjar+Brahmin combination. One Congress leader explained, “A few decades ago, Gujjars used to vote for the Congress but had slowly shifted to BJP during the time of Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. 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. It’s not just the Padmaavat issue. Rajputs across the state are feeling ignored by the BJP.”
In addition to the BJP’s handling of protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Padmavat’, another reason why Rajputs were said to be angry with the ruling party was the encounter of gangster Anandpal Singh Didwana on June 24, 2017.
Didwana belonged to the Ravana Rajput community, whose origins were said to be as children of Rajputs’ concubines and is seen as “lower” by traditional Rajputs. For a community with relatively lower social mobility, the image of a man from their community who wore sunglasses and expensive jackets, posed for smiling pictures with cops and “valiantly” defied them for years was an enduring one. For many Ravana Rajputs, Anandpal became a symbol of defiance. That he took on Jat gangs in the Ajmer-Nagaur belt helped cement his image as warrior fighting for his community.
Even before his killing by the cops in Rajasthan’s Churu, supporters had started setting up fan pages on Facebook, which openly called this history-sheeter a “Lion” of the Rajput community. According to one such Facebook page, Anandpal harbored dreams of one day serving his country in the Indian Army but “circumstances” forced him into a life of crime.
It was no surprise, therefore, that his funeral in his ancestral village of Sanvrad saw thousands milling into pay tribute and crowds even got violent. Massive rallies were held in his “honour” and supporters demanded a CBI probe into his encounter.
In the aftermath of the encounter, Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot played his cards carefully. Instead of criticizing violent protesters, he lashed out at Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for failing to maintain law and order in the state.
The Congress’s outreach to Rajputs, said party sources, worked and Anandpal’s encounter played a big part. “For many people in the state, he was a kind of a hero. His encounter created a huge furor in the state among Rajputs. That, coupled with the Padmaavat protests, have pushed Rajputs away from the BJP. We are certain that we will be able to keep up this momentum in the state,” said a Rajasthan Congress leader, on the condition of anonymity.
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