Rajasthan chief minister is prepared to go to any extent for a repeat of Congress government. And announcement of three more districts will not cost much to Gehlot if he is able to draw votes from these newly announced districts, which may not be notified before elections. For now, Gehlot only needs a booster dose of votes to regain the power.
Gehlot announced to carve out Sujanagarh from Churu, Malapura from Tonk and Kuchaman from the newly created Deedwana-Kuchaman, which itself is a spilt from Nagaur district.
There had been fierce agitation in all these three places ever since Gehlot had created 19 districts, two months back. People from Sujangarh had been clamouring for a separate district for years. People from Malpura were not willing to be part of either Kekri or Dudu which have recently been named districts. They had been demanding for a separate district. Similarly, carving out of Deedwana-Kuchaman had created more problem for Gehlot. People from Kuchaman were demanding for Kuchaman to be the headquarter while Deedwana people were agitating for the same status. Deedwana MLA Chetan Dudi and Kuchaman MLA Mahendra Choudhary – both have put pressure on CM to split the two.
“By announcing these three districts Ashok Gehlot had not only pleased the two MLAs but also targeted to get votes from over 15 lakh electorates from these two districts. Similarly, people from Malpura and Sujangarh may give Congress an advantage in the coming elections. What if these districts come into being after elections,” said Raghvendra Singh, a political observer.
According to sources, Gehlot has done an elaborate exercise on vote gains by creating new districts. Earlier Gehlot had created 17 new districts a couple of months back. And with these three new districts, Rajasthan will be on third spot on the number of districts led by Uttar Pradesh (75) and Madhya Pradesh (55).
“This is for the first time Gehlot looks so flexible. He is going by the demand of people and making all his MLAs happy. His style of governance this time may cost him dearly administratively but will definitely help him gain a tad extra vote percentage,” said Shambhu Nath Purohit, a political observer, who has seen seven assembly elections
The BuckStopper, run by a group of seasoned journalists, holds the powerful accountable. The buck stops with them, as they cannot shrug off their official responsibilities.
