Resentment in Gurjar voters over the Congress "neglecting" Sachin Pilot in the last few years has resulted in the party's poll loss in eastern Rajasthan, people from the community claimed on Monday.
In eight districts of Alwar, Bharatpur, Bundi, Dausa, Dholpur, Karauli, Sawai Madhopur and Tonk, the Congress in the 2018 assembly elections had won 29 out of 42 seats while the Bharatiya Janata Party got only six.
In the 2023 elections, results of which were announced on Sunday, the Congress tally was reduced to 19 from 29 while the BJP gained 14 seats and secured a total of 20 seats in the Gurjar-dominated region.
The BJP returned to power in the state, winning 115 seats out of the 199 where assembly elections were held last week.
The Congress, which was hoping to buck the trend of alternating government in the state, bagged 69 seats.
According to the people, Gurjars had voted for the Congress in the 2018 elections with a hope that Pilot, a Gurjar leader who was PCC chief then, would become the chief minister if the party formed the government but that did not happen and the way Pilot was treated in the last five years made them annoyed with the party.
Pilot had led the election campaign as PCC chief in 2018 but this time, outgoing chief minister Ashok Gehlot was leading the campaign while Pilot was more focused on his Tonk seat apart from a few other seats of his supporters.
“There was certainly resentment in the community over the bad treatment given to Sachin Pilot ever since the Congress formed government in December 2018. Everyone had expected that the Congress would make Pilot the chief minister but it was not done," Sughar Singh, a social worker from Dholpur, told PTI.
"More than that, Pilot who is a crowd puller was humiliated and insulted which hurt the community and therefore the Gurjar votes have gone against the Congress this time,” said Sughar Singh.
Pilot was in the race for the CM post after the Congress got a mandate in 2018 but the party appointed Ashok Gehlot as the CM for a third time and Pilot was made his deputy.
After Pilot rebelled against Gehlot leadership in July 2020, he was sacked as deputy CM and PCC president. As the internal feud between Pilot and Gehlot came out in the open, Gehlot even went on to call Pilot a 'gaddar' and 'nikamma'.
The discord between the two leaders has been quite palpable.
Surendra Khatana, who runs a school in Gangapur City, said the words which were used against Pilot instigated the Gurjar voters to go against the Congress this time.
“How can the community bear the kind of words used against Pilot. He did hard work to revive the party as PCC chief in five years, and during the five years of Congress rule, he only struggled,” Khatana said.
He said that local community leaders held meetings before the November 25 polls and decided to vote for the BJP instead of the Congress.
A Congress councillor in Hindaun, Karauli said that party MLAs were given free hand in lieu of their support to Gehlot and this also went against the Gurjars because the MLAs did not take their complaints seriously.
“We heard in community level programmes and functions how Gurjars were facing problems in getting their works done in the Congress government. Gurjars are a large community in the state, and ignoring a senior leader from the community certainly had a negative impact on the polls,” he said.
