Former chief minister Vasundhara Raje may have been able to placate agitating Gurjar leaders to keep caste equations in her favour but opposition from disgruntled farmers may make things difficult for her son and Bharatiya Janata Party candidate from Jhalawar, Dushyant Singh.
Local farmers are believed to have been dissatisfied with land acquisition for the atomic power plant at Anta. Moreover, with no rail connectivity and other infrastructural problems, the journey to the Lok Sabha may be anything but easy. Besides, sitting MP Dushyant is facing a tough task against Congress candidate Urmila Jain due to new caste equations. Jain is the wife of minister of state for PWD Pramod Jain Bhaya.
Moreover, though the Jhalawar-Baran Lok Sabha constituency has been a BJP bastion for the last two decades, the representation of the Congress in six out of eight assembly seats here may spell trouble for the saffron party. However, Raje's new equation with rebel Gurjar leaders is expected to provide some breather to the BJP candidate.After Kirorisingh Bainsla, another prominent Gurjar leader Prahalad Gunjal who was a strong opponent of Raje and was sacked by the party for criticising the former chief minister, has come back to the party and is now appealing to Gurjars to vote for Dushyant.
Dushyant and Jain apart, 12 others are trying their luck from this seat. Besides Gurjars, people from the Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and the minority community are going to play a decisive role here. Against such a backdrop, BSP candidate Abdul Qayyum may give some tough time to the BJP and the Congress candidates, if minority voters tilt towards him. There are 14.4 lakh voters in the constituency the polling to which will be held on May 7.