The party had lost all 32 Gujjar dominated seats in the eastern Rajasthan districts of Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Alwar, Bharatpur and Karauli even as BJP held its own in the Mewar-Marwar region in 2018.
BJP is also anticipating a favourable regrouping of the Gujjar-Meena communities, which had a long history of violence over the quota issue.
The Gujjar community is settled with its MBC category and has shunned demands for inclusion in the ST list, the bone of contention with the Meena community (tribal) for decades. The Gujjar community, accounting for over 5% of voters in the state, is spread across eastern Rajasthan and parts of Shekhawati, Jaipur rural and MewarMarwar regions. Attacking Congress at Jahajpur in Bhilwara on Wednesday, Modi said, “Whoever clashes with a family in Congress is destroyed forever.
Congress has a history. If anyone in Congress speaks the truth due to which the family gets even a little inconvenienced or gets hurt, then the politician goes to hell. Whoever said anything in front of this family in Congress has suffered badly. Rajesh Pilot ji had once challenged the family for the good of Congress but he failed and suffered.
This family is such that not only have they punished Rajesh ji, but they are also busy punishing his son (Sachin Pilot).” Be it raids and summons to CM Ashok Gehlot’s son Vaibhav or a reference to Rajesh Pilot, Sachin has come out openly in deference to the Congress line as he rejected inferences made by the PM. However, it wasn’t too long ago when Sachin was booked on sedition charges when he revolted against Gehlot in 2020. Rajesh Pilot had to face the Congress leadership’s wrath after he challenged Sonia Gandhi’s ascension in 1999.
In 2018, Sachin as state party chief was at the forefront of the Congress campaign and his community saw him as a CM-in-waiting. The community voted in favour of Congress in anticipation of their leader taking over as CM.
However, Sachin this time around has a curtailed role in the polls with Gehlot and party chief Govind Singh Dotasara being projected as the party’s face. Political expert and retired professor R D Gurjar said there was anger among the Gujjars against Congress in the whole of Rajasthan.
“Unlike 2018, when people were vocal against BJP, they are silent but there is a strong undercurrent against Congress, which will not win a single seat in the eastern region,” Gurjar told TOI.