Jaipur: In Rajasthan, the high command of both Congress and BJP by denying tickets has taught a lesson to some hard-core supporters of prominent leaders that they should be loyal to the party and not to the leaders.
In the candidate selection, the central leadership of both the parties have given tickets on the feedback and recommendations of Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, former deputy CM Sachin Pilot, and former CM Vasundhara Raje, but some of their very close associates who sometimes dare to challenge even the central leadership to show loyalty to their leaders have been denied tickets.
This is unique in terms that in the previous 4-5 elections, it has been seen that Ashok Gehlot in Congress and Vasundhara Raje in Bharatiya Janata Party have been given a fair hand to choose the candidates.
Both BJP and Congress face internal strife
But this time the picture looks somewhat different. Both parties were facing internal strife and intense factionalism during the last five years. This was the reason that many times some of the leaders were seen challenging the high command. The central leadership of the parties remained silent at that time but now when the time for ticket distribution came, the leaders sitting in Delhi showed that nothing is above the high command. The central leadership gave tickets at the behest of Ashok Gehlot, Sachin Pilot and Vasundhara Raje but rejected some of their very close associates.
Like CM Ashok Gehlot succeeded in getting tickets for 89 sitting MLAs of the party. Along with this, many independents and MLAs from BSP have also been given tickets on the party symbol, but his two most trusted leaders, Water Supply Minister Mahesh Joshi and Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Dharmendra Rathore could not get tickets. At the same time, the ticket of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal was also finalized in the final list. These three leaders had directly challenged the high command for Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on September 25 last year and were served show cause notice by the party.
Sachin Pilot's followers were allotted tickets
Many of Sachin Pilot supporters have been given tickets including those who rebelled against the party in July 2020 and went to Manesar with him. But his hardcore supporters like former mayor of Jaipur Jyoti Khandelwal, Suresh Mishra, Darshan Singh, Subhash Meel, PR Meena, Khiladi Lal Bairwa, Girraj Malinga who were very openly supporting Pilot and if they had got the ticket, Pilot's influence in the party could have increased further.
While in the BJP, before the elections, former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was seen as the most marginalized in the party. When the first list of the party was released, it seemed that Raje's era in the party was over, but the names of his supporters started appearing in all the subsequent lists and it is believed that out of 200, about 50 candidates are her supporters, but despite this, the party has denied tickets to some of her very close leaders like Yunus Khan and Rajpal Singh Shekhawat, who were ministers in her government, MLA Ashok Lahoti and former state president Ashok Parnami.
