2 weeks ago
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Veteran Congress leader Ram Chandra Choudhary, who has been heading the Ajmer District Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union since 1990, enjoys a direct connect with the rural voters as the party candidate in Rajasthan’s Ajmer Lok Sabha constituency. Mr. Choudhary, 78, faces a challenge from the Bharatiya Janata Party while trying to reach out to the voters in the urban areas.
BJP candidate and sitting MP Bhagirath Choudhary seems to be confident after the party’s victory in seven of the eight Assembly segments in the Lok Sabha seat in the 2023 State elections, when the BJP formed the government in Rajasthan. The winners include Assembly Speaker Vasudev Devnani, who was elected from Ajmer North.
Wooing Gujjars, Dalits
Both the candidates, belonging to the Jat community, are trying to attract the voters from Gujjar and Dalit castes, as the Jat votes are set to split between the two. The Opposition Congress expects that Mr. Ram Chandra’s popularity among the farmers and cattle rearers, for whom he has worked for three decades, would bring electoral dividends to the party.
Since 1998, the Ajmer Lok Sabha seat has witnessed a pendulum-like shift between the Congress and the BJP. The longest tenure was that of BJP’s Rasa Singh Rawat, who was elected for five times from the seat since 1989. Mr. Bhagirath was preceded by Congress’s Raghu Sharma, who was elected in the by-election in 2018.
Political observers here point out that since the constituency has alternated between the Congress and BJP over the last three decades, no party can claim the Lok Sabha seat to be its stronghold. This has forced both the candidates to work on the local caste dynamics and appeal for votes with promises made to different sections of society.
While Gujjar voters can make a difference in Pushkar, Nasirabad and Kekri Assembly segments, Jats are present in all the constituencies except Ajmer North and Ajmer South. The presence of the historic 13th century dargah of Sufi mystic Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti in the city, which attracts pilgrims from all over the country, also underlines the significance of Muslim voters in the Lok Sabha election.
Clean image: Congress
Ajmer District Congress Committee president Vijay Jain told The Hindu that Mr. Ram Chandra, working in the dairy sector for long, has the advantage of political support through as many as 2,000 milk booths. “Mr. Ram Chandra has also earlier headed the rural segment of the district unit of Congress. He has a clean image without blemish in the public life, which will give advantage to Congress,” Mr. Jain said.
Mr. Ram Chandra has also promised to bring an Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management to Ajmer after the establishment of the Central University of Rajasthan near Kishangarh. Congress supporters in places such as Kekri, Masuda and Nasirabad affirm that the youngsters would cast their ballot in favour of the party because of the road map given for educational and employment opportunities.
On the other hand, Mr. Bhagirath has promoted the BJP’s guarantees and promises made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the electorate. Refuting the charge that he was inaccessible during the last five years, Mr. Bhagirath said at a recent public meeting that the BJP’s focus was about getting public works done rather than showing the face in public. He also affirmed that the “double engine government” in the State would bring prosperity to farmers.
The voters in the constituency have demanded solutions to the issues such as paucity of drinking water, absence of industries, poor road connectivity and absence of sewage system in the villages. Anant Gupta, a BJP worker in the city, said the people in several areas, who were getting water supply once in three days, would be willing to vote for the party only if they were convinced by the its promises.
