In Rajasthan, Punjab model of leadership could help Congress

challenge. In the recent byepolls, the Congress received the support of Jats and Rajputs. The big question is whether the tenuous ground-level rapprochement bred by their shared antipathy for chief minister Vasundhara Raje will sustain in the run-up to polls?

The Raje dispensation is dominated by Rajputs but the Padmavat uproar saw the combative community backing the Congress on a rebound. Speculation is also rife that Shri Rajput Karni Sena leader Lokendra Singh Kalvi could hitch on the anti-Raje bandwagon. He has flirted with the BJP and the Congress in the past. It looks more expedient for him to ally with the Congress this time. If Kalvi does warm up to the Congress, the Rajput vote will consolidate in the party’s favour, regardless of his disapprobation in Urban India.

That leaves the Jats. At one time the Congress had in its fold a number of weighty leaders: Ram Nivas Mirdha, Paras Ram Maderna, Sis Ram Ola and Balram Jhakhar. But they all have passed into history. Maderna’s son Mahipal is in jail in the Bhanwari Devi murder case. Even Col (retd) Sona Ram is with the BJP since 2104. He left the Congress and got elected from Barmer, defeating estranged BJP veteran Jaswant Singh.

The void perhaps can be filled by the likes of Badri Jhakhar, who represents in the state assembly Jodhpur’s Bhopalgarh seat associated with Maderna. “The Congress faces must be a bouquet of social groups,” said Raghu Rathore of the erstwhile Jodhpur royalty: “That’ll take care of inter-caste rivalries…”

But no inclusive bouquet of identities would work without the Congress projecting a chief ministerial face. For Narendra Modi’s stock hasn’t tanked despite widespread disenchantment with Raje — whose replacement at this late stage could be a double-edged weapon. Her ejection, if at all, will not be without intra-BJP tremors.

As for the Congress, one wrong move and it’ll be chasing a chimera in the Thar.