New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will now step into the Rajasthan campaign and bring together arch rivals ex-chief minister Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot in Jalore on April 14. Though both Gehlot and Pilot have been campaigning across the state for the Congress candidates, this would be the first time when the two stalwarts would share the stage in the presence of Priyanka Gandhi, said party insiders.
A rally in Jalore would be the most significant part of her two-day campaign spread over April 14 and 15. The contest in Jalore has become high-profile as Vaibhav Gehlot, son of former chief minister Ashok Genlot is the Congress candidate from there. In the previous 2019 national polls, Vaibhav Gehlot had contested from the Jodhpur seat, but lost to Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat despite his father being the Chief Minister.
Out of power in 2024, Ashok Gehlot is leaving no stone unturned to ensure a win for his son, who shifted to Jalore this time and is pitted against BJP’s Numbaram Chaudhury. Jalore is considered to be a safe seat for Vaibhav given a significant population of Scheduled Castes and OBCs, including the Mali community, which Ashok Gehlot belongs to.
The ex-chief minister recently used his influence over the BSP candidate from Jalore Lal Singh Rathore, who withdrew his nomination in support of Vaibhav Gehlot. Over the past days, Ashok Gehlot has addressed a few rallies in the Jalore parliamentary segment while Vaibhav’s wife and daughter, too, have joined the campaign to mobilise support.
When asked, Pilot had recently said that he had campaigned for Vaibhav in 2019 in his capacity as the then state unit chief and would do the same in 2024 to indicate his equation with Ashok Gehlot was smooth. The Ashok Gehlot-Sachin Pilot power tussle had been a cause for concern for the high command since the Congress came to power in Rajasthan in 2018.
According to party insiders, the feud between the two stalwarts was one of the key reasons behind the party losing the 2023 assembly polls besides wrong distribution of tickets. “We are winning Jalore. Priyanka Gandhi’s presence would give us a further boost,” AICC secretary in- charge of Rajasthan Virendra Rathore told ETV Bharat.
In 2019, the BJP had contested 24 out of 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state and won all of them. BJP’s ally RLP had won the Nagaur seat. The BJP had 58.4 per cent vote share as compared to 34.2 per cent of the Congress. In 2024, RLP leader Hanuman Beniwal is contesting the Nagaur seat as a member of the INDIA bloc. Besides Nagaur, the Congress has left the Sikar seat for ally CPI-M and the Banswara seat for tribal party BAP.
The alliance factor as well as the resistance the BJP is reportedly facing in Rajasthan has excited the Congress managers. Ex-BJP MP Rahul Kaswan is contesting from Churu on a Congress ticket while former BJP MLA Prahlad Gunjal is fighting on a Congress ticket from Kota against Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. “The Congress is putting up a very good fight. The BJP is suffering from dissent and would not be able to sweep the polls as it happened in 2019,” said Rathore.
Read more: Lok Sabha Election 2024: Congress Deploys Priyanka Gandhi To Swing Uttarakhand On April 13
