New Delhi: The Congress is taking no chances in Rajasthan and has started reaching out to prospective independent candidates and smaller parties to get additional numbers if needed, a senior AICC functionary said on Monday.
“We are hopeful of a simple majority but in politics, communication lines are always open among various parties and leaders and assume significance when the stakes are high,” a senior AICC functionary said on condition of anonymity. Polling for the 200-member assembly in Rajasthan took place on November 25. The result would be out on December 3.
Though the party leaders are claiming a clear majority in public, that is 101 or more seats, an internal assessment has shown that the poll outcome may be the same as in 2018. In 2018, the Congress had won 99 seats, the BJP 73 and BSP 6 seats apart from the Independents. The Congress made Ashok Gehlot the chief minister who used his influence to get support from the 6 BSP MLAs and some Independents.
Keeping that in mind, the Congress has made an early move by quietly reaching out to the rivals as a matter of political courtesy and expediency, said party strategists. “In 2018, we won 99 seats and lost 100 seats. This time we may lose 30 of our 99 winning seats but we will also gain 30 of the 100 seats we lost in the last assembly elections. This means after adjusting the losses and gains, we would be around the same position as in 2018. In any case, we will emerge as the single largest party. We will form the government again even if that requires a few extra seats,” the AICC functionary said.
According to party insiders, the confidence this time comes from the various opinion polls which regularly show the popularity of Chief Minister Gehlot and appreciation of his government’s various social welfare schemes by the voters. Coupled with that, the Congress conducted an aggressive campaign around the party’s poll promises against the BJP which had little to show and therefore copied several assurances of the ruling party, said party insiders.
“I don’t want to get into a numbers game but I am confident of a win,” AICC general secretary in charge of Rajasthan SS Randhawa told ETV Bharat. However, party insiders acknowledged that a lot of state leaders shared concerns about whether the Congress would be able to reverse the tradition of governments revolving in Rajasthan every five years.
“It was a neck and neck fight in Rajasthan. But even if we come close to the halfway mark of 101 seats, credit must go to everyone in the party for achieving the numbers consecutively. We will accept the verdict with humility,” said a senior state Congress leader.
The Congress left the Bharatpur seat for ally RLD and is confident of their support. Besides, the party hopes to do well in several of the seats it had lost in 2018 including Sriganganagar, Gangapur City, Anupgarh, Bhadra, Bikaner East, Pilibanga, Sanganer, Malviya Nagar, Kapasan, Vidyadhar Nagar, Jalor, Dug, Jhalrapatan, Khanpur, Manohar Thana, Udaipurvati, Ramganj Mandi, Marwar Junction, Malpura, Revdar, Nagaur, Ratangarh, Khandela, Ajmer North, Ajmer South, Alwar City, Behror, Bhilwara, Bundi, Kota, Sirohi, Bhopalgarh etc.
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