Rajasthan Assembly Elections are scheduled to be held on 7th December. According to the popular media perception or rather deception, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is on a shaky ground in the state. The mainstream media is busy painting a monocromatic picture of Bharatiya Janata Party’s prospects in the upcoming State Assembly elections. The Congress party, like always, has assured itself of its imagined victory in the state. However, it seems like people of Rajasthan are not very excited about the Congress as they would like to think. On Wednesday, Gandhi scion took out a 100 Kilometer roadshow from Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s home turf Jhalawar, to Kota. His roadshow flopped miserably as he simply failed to attract people to his rally. Overall his roadshow was an absolute no-show. The number of people attending Rahul Gandhi’s rally was slightly more than the number of Congress MPs’ in the parliament.
राहुल गांधी जी के राजस्थान वाले रोड शो में जितने लोग आये उससे ज्यादा लोग बिहार में गाड़ी रिवर्स कराने आ जाते हैं
आये द आये द
काटअ काटअ दहिना काटअ
तनी औ घुमा ल
बस…अब सीधे निकाल ल
— Atul Kumar Mishra (@TheAtulMishra) October 25, 2018
It is no secret that wherever Rahul Gandhi steps in, Congress is thrown out of power and scores a humiliating defeat for itself. The news of Rahul Gandhi campaigning for his party is like music to the ears of his political opponents. He is rightly called the “star campaigner” of BJP, a closet sanghi etc. The only state where Rahul Gandhi did not campaign for the Congress is Punjab and the party emerged victorious. Captain Amarinder Singh managed to score a victory for Congress in Punjab and also crushed AAP’s dream of sweeping the state. The campaign of Congress in Punjab was centered around Captain Amarinder Singh and Rahul Gandhi’s name was almost absent during the electoral campaign. Catchy slogans and campaigns were launched such as ‘Punjab da Captain’, ‘Coffee with Captain’, ‘Halke Vich Captain’, ‘Har Ghar Captain’ etc. It seems Capt. Amarinder Singh was well aware of the fact that Rahul Gandhi is the self styled Frankenstein of Congress.
The Rajasthan state unit of the Congress should take a leaf out of CM Amarinder’s book and keep Rahul Gandhi away from the state, if they want to increase their odds of winning elections be it state or otherwise. Rajasthan Congress is already suffering from severe infighting and the presence Rahul Gandhi during the elections will only harm their electoral prospects. With elections this close, there should have been strong ongoing preparations to go head on with the Vasundhara Raje led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. But Congress as of now is facing a battle of its own, and this infighting is bound to hurt the prospects of Congress in the state. Former CM of Rajasthan, Ashok Gehlot has expressed the desire to remain in the state to stake his claim for the CM chair. While the Congress were planning to hoist the name of the state Congress President Sachin Pilot for the CM post.
Usually, when any conflict arises within the party, the one closer to the Gandhi family gets to reap the political benefit. Things like merit and popularity do not warrant any consideration in the Rahul Gandhi led party. It is only those who enjoy proximity to the Nehru-Gandhi family, stand a chance of going upwards in the political ladder.
In order to temporarily pacify the claimants, Congress decided to refrain from declaring a CM candidate. However, this strategy will not yield any result if Rahul Gandhi continues to campaign for the Congress in the state. He is clearly a ‘Bhasmasur’ for his party. With every rally and every roadshow that he does for his party, he will be converting people from “Congressis to BJPians” like he did in Gujarat, where he famously wanted to convert “potato to gold”. Rahul Gandhi is probably the only leader who enjoys support from his friends and adversaries alike.