Rajasthan polls looming, BJP inducts 23 leaders as it looks to regain ground in Gujjar, tribal belts

Senior Rajasthan BJP leaders at the state party headquarters in Jaipur on Saturday. (Express Photo)

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Rajasthan polls looming, BJP inducts 23 leaders as it looks to regain ground in Gujjar, tribal belts

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With about four months to go for the Assembly elections in Rajasthan, the principal Opposition BJP has stepped up its attempts to reach out to the communities such as Gujjars and tribals, which had rallied round the Congress party in the 2018 Assembly polls to fuel its return to power.

On Saturday, 23 leaders, including a few former MLAs, joined the BJP at an event in Jaipur in the presence of senior party leaders, including its Rajasthan in-charge Arun Singh.

A look at the caste and regional equations, which seem to have influenced the induction of these leaders into the BJP, indicates the party’s bids to boost its poll prospects on these fronts.

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A tribal leader and ex-MLA, Anita Katara, was among those who returned to the saffron party Saturday. Katara, a former BJP MLA from the Scheduled Tribes (ST)-reserved Sagwara constituency in Dungarpur district in southern Rajasthan, had left the BJP ahead of the 2018 polls after being denied an election ticket.

Katara’s return to the BJP is considered significant because the party had lost the Sagwara seat in 2018 to the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP), which had then won two seats. Katara had contested the election as an Independent but lost to the BTP’s candidate. In light of the current scene, where a section of tribals in southern Rajasthan is said to have kept open their electoral preferences, the BJP has brought Katara back to capitalise on her influence in the region.

In the 2018 polls, the BJP fared poorly in the tribal seats in the state, especially those in the eastern Rajasthan region swept by the Congress. Several leaders in the list hail from various districts in eastern Rajasthan, including Sikar and Bharatpur.

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Another ex-BJP legislator who made his “ghar wapsi” Saturday is Gopichand Gurjar, who had been a party MLA from the Nagar Assembly constituency in Bharatpur district during 1993-1998. He had spearheaded the campaign for the passing of the Rajasthan Bovine Animal (Prohibition of Slaughter and Regulation of Temporary Migration or Export) Act, 1995.

Known for his campaigns for cow protection, Gopichand is said to be “well-entrenched” in Nagar, which has a significant percentage of voters from the Gujjar community. The Nagar Assembly constituency is currently represented by Congress MLA Wajib Ali.

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Ahead of the 2018 polls, Gopichand had joined the Congress in the presence of the then state Congress president Sachin Pilot, but the party had not fielded him in the elections. Pilot is perhaps the most prominent Gujjar leader in the state.

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There are several Gujjar faces in the list of those who joined the BJP Saturday, that include retired judge Kishan Lal Gurjar, advocate Atar Singh Gurjar, and Bhagwan Singh Gurjar. The BJP’s move to win back the support of the Gujjar community is evident, given that the community had switched its loyalties en masse in favour of the Congress for the 2018 polls, when Pilot had emerged as a leading contender for the chief minister’s post. Consequently, not a single Gujjar candidate fielded then by the BJP could win the election, even though the community has been known to be the party’s traditional voters.