Why Congress is worried over the Jat vote in Rajasthan?

Preeti Taneja

Entrepreneur | Posted on 27-Nov-2018

It’s not just the Congress. Even BJP is taking the Jat votes very seriously and are worried about their political allegiance. Jats comprise of almost 10 percent of Rajasthan’s 47.6 million voters. So, it’s not hard to imagine why ahead of State Election on December 7, they have a lot of attention right now.

Letsdiskuss (Courtesy: The Financial Express)

There are different dynamics one should understand to effectively analyze the runner-up to Rajasthan state election. Different communities have different preferences; different leaders boast varying appeal among different communities.

Traditionally, Jats have always supported Congress. However, in Rajasthan State Election in 2013 and General Election in 2014, they extended their support to the BJP. Now, the murmurs in the inner circle are that the community isn’t very happy with the BJP’s work over the course of 4 years on both national and local levels. Many of them believe that Modi government failed to keep the promises that it made during the election campaigns earlier. In addition, BJP touts massive support from the Rajputs, who are often credited as Jats’ biggest rivals. So, this, too, comes to play a role in here.

(Courtesy: The Indian Express)

BUT this doesn’t mean they are open to root back to Congress. The community’s face, independent legislator and former BJP leader, Hanuman Beniwal, has launched his own party on October 29 called Rashtriya Loktantrik Party. The party is contesting 58 of the 200 seats in the Rajasthan state election. Congress has reached out to the RLP—and so did BJP. As of now, it’s fair to say that no party will cross the majority mark. So, Beniwal’s party can come to play a Kingmaker for either of the big 2 parties.

In addition, Congress has recently added Manvendra Singh as one of its Rajasthan’s face. Manvendra is a popular Rajput leader who enjoys good influence among Rajputs, Meghwals, and Muslims. So, he can bring in some votes from the Rajputs who usually leans towards the BJP. But then his addition to Congress may also hurt the party’s vote share in the Jat community, who, again, treat Rajputs as a rival.

Also, worth noting is that Jats are usually considered close to the Muslims. So, having them on-board will also mean a major vote share from the Muslim community.

Indeed, for students of Political Science, this is one of the best times in the country. The runner-up to the Rajasthan State Election is getting quite interesting. After that, there are elections in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.