Six months after winning assembly elections in Rajasthan, the ruling BJP suffered despicable defeat in the Lok Sabha elections. After clean sweeping seats in last two elections, the saffron party lost 11 seats giving sleepless nights to top leadership in the state.
While senior tribal leader and minister in Bhajan Lal Sharma cabinet, Kirodi Lal Meena has already announced to resign from his post after the defeat in four of the seven constituencies handed over to him by prime minister Narendra Modi, the pressure is mounting on chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma and state president CP Joshi, who though has won Chittorgarh Lok Sabha seat with a comfortable margin for around four lakh votes.
Meena is said to preparing for his resignation as he failed to manage victory on seats like Dausa, Tonk-SawaiMadhopur, Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur seats handed over by the prime minister Narendra Modi. He had been successful in getting BJP victorious on three seats – Kota, Jaipur Rural and Alwar.
The defeat has put question mark on the working of newly elected chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma. In the deferred polling during assembly elections also, the BJP suffered defeat on Sri Karanpur seat despite appointing the candidate Surendra Pal Singh TT minister even before the elections.
The position of party president CP Joshi is
equally in jeopardy.
“Either one of them will have to lose his post. In every possibility C P Joshi will have to resign from the post of party president taking the moral responsibility of the defeat. Chances are there Bhajan Lal may continue as chief minister for some time,” said Raghvendra Singh, a political analyst.
Apart from that, the influence of senior BJP leader Rajendra Singh Rathore will also fade after the party's debacle in Churu. It was Rajendra Singh Rathore who persuaded senior leadership to deny ticket to the sitting MP Rahul Kaswan, who later left party to win the election on Congress ticket.
“Rajendra Rathore was bell bent in sidelining Rahul Kaswan, who had been suspected of playing foul in the assembly elections when Rathore lost from Churu. He (Rathore) took the responsibility of winning the seat for the party. Now that he failed to do so, he may face the music,” said a senior party leader.
Vasu effect
People in the party have started taking about the absence of Vasundhara Raje in the entire poll campaign. She was not made the chief minister after the party registered an emphatic win in December last year. She was restricted to campaign only for his son Dushyant Singh, who won the Jhalawar-Baran seat comfortably by around for lakh votes.
“It was a strategic mistake of party who sidelined Vasundhara Raje in the Lok Sabha elections. Had she been involved in the campaign, the party would have been benefitted. She has equal penetration in Jat, Gurjar and Rajput voters, who seemed to have cut affiliation from the party this time,” said a senior party official.
