Rajasthan Assembly elections become more candidate-centric than the party-centric

Jaipur, Dec 5: Campaign for the Rajasthan Assembly elections will be over and around 4.74 crore voters will exercise their franchise on December 7, 2018 but amidst all the noise of election campaign, polls in the state seem to be more focused on candidates than political parties. At least situation is more or less the same in the rural areas.

Before tickets were distributed, voters were comparing between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and election was between the political parties but after ticket distribution the entire scenario is changed and focus is more on candidates than on political parties. The caste of the candidate is playing greater important role than anything else. While speaking to the voters of the rural area, they have said that issues have got nothing to do in this elections which is being raised by the star campaigners. Voters are going to attend these rallies but they are clapping more when name of the local candidate is mentioned in the speech of the start campaigners.

After the election meeting, if anyone discusses the matter with the people their answer would be that whatever is being said in the meeting will go on but ultimately the MLA will work for the people of the area, so for them candidate matters more than anything else. A civil right organisation Election Watch And Association of Democratic Reforms conducted a survey from September to November in which it was said that 48 per cent voters vote looking at the candidate.

Star campaigners of both the principal parties are able to draw similar kind of crowd. So no one can claim that their campaigners are getting more attention from people than the leaders of rival party. This tells that people are listening to everyone but finally they will vote for candidate.

Caste is playing an important role as ever especially in the rural area. Caste panchayats are once again about to play an important role and candidates were seen seeking their support. The situation has emerged like this because there are around 20 such seats where rebels of both the Congress and the BJP are in the fray. Four ministers in the Vasundhara Raje government Surendra Goel, Dhan Singh Rawat, Hem Singh Bhadana, Rajkumar Rinwa, parliamentary secretary Om Prakash Hudla and for the Congress former Union minister Mahadev Singh Khandela, former minister Babulal Nagar, former MLA Sanyam Lodha, CS Baidya and Nathuram Sinodia are in the frey. Besides these leaders, Hanuman Beniwal of Rashtravadi Loktantrik Party and Bharat Wahini Party's Ghanshyam Tiwadi are in the fray and contesting election strongly. They all are making election candidate centric.