Rajasthan elections: Why Khanpur constituency is tricky for BJP

Jaipur, Oct 27: The Congress has predicted victory in the four constituencies in south-eastern Rajasthan's Jhalawar district in the December 7 elections and the ruling BJP may find it tough to win the unpredictable seat of Khanpur - one of those four.

It's not that Khanpur has not been lucky for the BJP. Since 1985, the saffron party has won this seat five out of seven times while the Congress has won two. Khanpur has remained under the BJP's control since 2003 even though power has shifted hands in the state regularly since 1993.

BJP has a challenge despite winning Khanpur since 2003

The trick, however, lies with the candidates who contest from this seat. Khanpur is one of those seats in the state where no candidate has won consecutive terms. The current MLA from the seat, Narendra Nagar, who is a parliamentary secretary and considered close to Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje won from here in 2003 but was not given ticket again in 2008. In 2008, the winner was Anil Jain but he was not fielded again in 2013 when Nagar came back.

This time, although Nagar looks a strong contender to get tickets from the seat but the history of this seat has created an uncertain situation for the BJP. CM Raje's constituency Jhalrapatan also falls in Jhalawar district and she is known to have a good influence over Khanpur seat as well.

Jhalawar had earlier five constituencies - Jhalrapatan, Khanpur, Dag, Pirawa and Manohar Thana. In 2003, all five seats were won by the BJP while in 2008, Pirawa ceased to exit following delimitation and both the BJP and Congress won two seats each. In 2013, the BJP won all the four seats again.