59 SC, ST seats could sway Raj assembly poll outcome

JAIPUR: : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 50 out of the 59 seats reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in Rajasthan to return to power in the state in 2013. The Congress bagged 34 of the reserved seats in the 200member assembly and went on to form the government in the state five years earlier. The SCs (17.8%) and the STs (13.5%) account for the Rajasthan’s 31.3% population and are key to who rules the state.

The SC seats are spread throughout the state’s seven divisions while those for the STs are concentrated in the Udaipur division, which has been the focus of the two main parties vying for power.

Chief minister Vasundhara Raje launched her campaign from Udaipur division’s Charbhuja temple in August. Congress president Rahul Gandhi held his first election rally in Rajasthan in the division’s Sagwara a month later.

The BJP is buoyed by tribal leader Kirodi Lal Meena’s return to the party a decade after he left it amid differences with Raje. The Congress has included tribal leader Raghuveer Singh Meena to its highest decision-making body, the Congress Working Committee, as part of its efforts to woo the tribals.

Rajasthan Adivasi Adhikar Manch (Tribal Rights Forum) convenor Dharamchand Khair, 45, said there was anger against the BJP in tribal areas. “The BJP government made MNREGA weak,’’ said Khair, referring to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act under which 100-day employment is annually provided to an adult member of every rural household.

Khair blamed the Raje government for complicating the social security schemes’ delivery by introducing point-of-sale machines in areas where mobile connectivity is an issue.

“People are facing problems in claiming their social security pensions and [subsidised] PDS [Public Distribution System] rations,” said Khair, whose organisation is an amalgam of 27 groups working for the tribal rights.

Khair, who lives in Udaipur’s Kotda block, said villages in Southern Rajasthan still lack basic amenities like roads and electricity.