POLL VITAL STATS Cycle rallies, rangoli exhibitions, women rallies, candle In the 2013 assembly elections, the BJP fielded 28 Rajput marches, marathon and other such awareness pro- candidates; of them 23 won. In the same elections, the grammes will be organized during the Rainbow Week party nominated 32 Jat candidates; of them 23 won ASHOK JAIN, STATE CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER Dance of Democracy BATTLEGROUND RAJASTHAN | 17APR & 24 APR, 2014 FOLLOW DANCE OF DEMOCRACY ON TWITTER @TOI_ELECTIONS THE TIMES OF INDIA, JAIPUR | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014 POLLNOTES CONG CANDIDATE’S HUSTLING IN BJP hopes to win with political greenhorns Arvind Sharma MOVIE THEATRE Dausa constituency and Swami testing as an Independent against 36% Candidates Sumedhanand from Sikar con- the BJP candidate. Maharia said, A cinema hall brings people of every caste stituency, turning down the can- “I have been serving the people of and creed together for nearly three hours, if Never Contested didatures of seasoned local lead- Sikar for the past 18 years. It is un- the movie is from the Bollywood. To capital- ers. justified that an outsider should ize on voters coming to watch movies, Hari- An Election Other than this, the party has reap the benefits of my toiling. A sh Chaudhary, the Congress candidate chosen Gajendra Singh Shekha- candidate from Haryana cannot from the Barmer Jaisalmer, has opened his TIMES NEWS NETWORK wat from Jodhpur, Rahul Kaswan solve the local problems. The par- office at a cinema hall he owned in Barmer. from Churu, Hari Om Singh ty has cheated its five lakh devot- Many of his publicity material and for the Jaipur: To accomplish its ‘Mis- Rathore from Rajsamand , Chho- ed workers in the consistency.” Congress party put up at the cinema hall sion-25’ of winning all Lok Sabha tu Ram Chaudhary from Nagaur, Since the day Sumedhanand’s apart is generating a lot of interest now. seats in the state, the BJP is count- Chandra Prakash Joshi from name was announced, the BJP “Many people who are coming to watch ing on candidates who have never Chittorgarh and PP Chaudhary party workers have been protest- films also visit our office and promise to contested any elections. from Pali for the elections. ing against the decision. His car support us,” said a Congress worker at Out of the 25 candidates field- In the state assembly election was also attacked recently. Simi- Barmer. Apart from the poster of Sunny Le- ed in the forthcoming general four months ago, the BJP leaded lar incidents were reported from one who stars in the film ‘Ragini MMS’ and elections, nine or nearly 36% with a good margin in all assemb- Chittorgarh and other constitu- being screened at the theatre, there are al- have never contested even for ly segments of 23 of the 25 parlia- encies. “The party had sought so posters of Rahul Gandhi and Harish panchayat or local bodies’ elec- mentary constituencies. BJP in- names of three potential candi- Chaudhary to woo the voters. tions. siders said this was the reason the dates from its local seniors and The party has given tickets to party was taking the ‘risk’ in Lok workers before picking up its BJP candidate Ramcharan Bohra from Jaipur constituency addressing party workers ``43 lakh seized popular personalities such as Sabha elections. nominee. It is surprising that a The Jaipur unit of Investigation Wing, Rajas- Olympic silver medalist Rajya- However, the BJP candidates workers in Sikar were unhappy has fielded first timer Sumedha- BJP heavyweight, former MP candidate without any political than, of the EC on Tuesday seized Rs 43 lakh vardhan Singh Rathore from the in some constituencies have still about the party’s choice of candi- nand, a religious leader who is be- Subhash Maharia and his sup- experience was still selected for in cash from a vehicle near village Amarsar Jaipur rural constituency, for- not won acceptance from the par- date and make no attempts to hide lieved to have a large number of porters have come out against the the task to represent the area,” a in Shahpura tehsil in Jaipur district. The mer DGP Harish Meena from ty workers. For instance, the BJP their disappointment. The party followers in the Jat community. party decision. Maharia is con- BJP worker said. Static Surveillance Teams (SST) deployed by the district electoral officer – cum – col- lector, Jaipur are already engaged in road- side checking of all vehicles to detect elec- tion related cash, gold/silver bullion, liquor Parties play caste card in The tale of two arch rivals and election material among others. One such team at village Amarsar, tehsil – Shah- Chief minister Vasundhara Raje and her predecessor Ashok Gehlot have captained BJP and Congress pura, detected cash amounting to Rs 43 Nagaur, Sikar & Dausa for almost two decades now. The two leaders have been chief ministers twice. While Raje’s political career has lakhs being carried in a fertilizer polysack in a Bolero vehicle in the evening of March 31. Syed Intishab Ali TNN Dausa, said, “The candidates are coming to probably reached a crescendo, the one of Gehlot seems to have sunk to its ebb. TOI peeks into the current stature our area and they are talking about develop- of the two leaders in electoral politics and their status in their respective parties: Effigy of BJP MLA burnt Jaipur: Nagaur, Sikar and Dausa will wit- ment. They promised us that they will work The Rajasthan Mahila Pradesh Congress ness a triangular fight but with a twist since for the development of the area. Here, the top burnt an effigy of Hira Lal, BJP MLA from Ni- candidates of the same caste are in the fray. candidates belong to same caste so we have VASUNDHARA RAJE ASHOK GEHLOT wai, for making “absurd” comments on Since, other caste voters would be a deciding no other option than to vote for one of them.” Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her factor in such constituencies, the candidates Since all the top contenders in Dausa be- he has emerged as one of firm no to Meena leader. e could not manage Jaisalmer, for his barbs son Rahul Gandhi during a public meeting. are leaving no stone unturned in wooing long to Meena community, Independent can- the most prominent re- Within BJP, Ghanshyam ticket for his own son against Gehlot. Another Addressing a gathering in Tonk-Sawai Mad- S H them. didate Anju Dhanja is trying to cash in on the gional satraps of BJP. Tiwari, Devi Singh Bhati, Vaibhav Gehlot for Gehlot baiter, Udai Lal Anja- hopur constituency, Lal remarked that So- Counting number of Meena, Jat, minori- opportunity to secure votes of other castes Her clout within the party Narpat Singh Rajvi are a few the Lok Sabha polls. Gehlot na is the Congress candidate nia and Rahul will be sent back to Italy with- ty and other community votes of a particular when three bigwig Meena leaders are up has soared to the extent that other names, who have been expressed his discontent from Jalore. out clothes if his party came to power. constituency is a known method to give tick- against each other. denial of ticket to veteran pushed to the wall. The about denial of ticket to his Today Gehlot stands iso- Mahila Cong president Shakuntala Rawat ets to candidates. However, Nagaur is another such constit- leader Jaswant Singh from threesome had at some point son recently at Jodhpur. He lated in Rajasthan politics. said the language used against a woman In Dausa, Congress candidate Namo Na- uency, which has candidates of same caste Barmer-Jaisalmer Lok Sab- of time fumed at Raje. A se- went on to say, “Vaibhav ne As PCC chief, Sachin Pilot is was indecent and it’s an insult to women. rain Meena, BJP candidate Harish Meena contesting polls. Jats are in a dominating po- ha constituency happened nior Brahmin community bhi party ke liye laathi khai taking maximum calls and is and NPP candidate Kirori Lal Meena are in sition in Nagaur but since three Jat candi- largely at her behest. Singh leader Tiwari is only an hai.” Vaibhav had tried for being projected as Congress Tempo operators for BJP the fray. While in Nagaur, political parties dates are in the fray, there is always a possibil- was one of Raje’s men- MLA at present and Jalore or Tonk-Sawai steward in the LS Going with the ‘NaMo’ wave, now tempo fielded Jat candidates. Congress candidate ity of division of votes, which makes other tors when she had en- was not given ticket Madhopur LS con- polls. CP Joshi is operators of Jaipur have decided to support Jyoti Mirdha, BJP candidate C R Chaudhary caste votes a deciding factor. tered politics in the from Jaipur al- stituencies. there in advisory BJP in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. and Independent Hanuman Beniwal will An election watcher in Nagaur, Ashfaq eighties. However, the though he was the None of Gehlot role. However, Gehlot The association that was so far supportive take on each other. In Sikar, Jat candidates in- Kayamkhani, said, “In Nagaur, since 1967 on- two fell apart after party candidate in loyalists has made it is no where to be of Congress has decided to shift loyalties to cluding Pratap Singh Jat from Congress, Su- ly Jats have been becoming MPs from the dis- one-upmanship fight 2009 Lok Sabha to the Congress list of seen. Be it party ral- the BJP given the Modi wave. On the flip medhanand Saraswati from BJP and Inde- trict. In 1998, BJP fielded Shyam Sunder Ka- between the two lead- polls.