Manvendra’s wife says she may contest elections ‘if people want’
BARMER: Indicating she might contest the assembly election, veteran leader Jaswant Singh’s daughter-in-law and Manvendra Singh’s wife Chitra Singh, in a meeting recently in Jaisalmer, said that if public and the Congress want her to contest, she is ready to take the poll plunge.
Chitra Singh’s statement is quite contradictory to that of her husband, who had announced after joining Congress, that no member of his family will contest this assembly election.
When Manvendra Singh joined the Congress in presence of party president Rahul Gandhi in Delhi last month, there were speculations that his wife may contest. Singh had announced that he will contest the parliamentary polls from Barmer. On October 28, when he came to Barmer for the first time after joining the Congress, he said that no one from his family would join the fray.
Manvendra refused to comment on Chitra’s hint. There are speculations that she may contest from Pa chpadra, Siwana or Jaisalmer. Political analyst Shivprakash Soni said there are specific reasons behind the speculations.
Soni said that both Siwana and Jaisalmer seats are Rajput-dominated, and Manvendra’s native village Jasol comes under the Pachpadra assembly constituency. Currently, these three seats are with the BJP.
Chitra Singh has been campaigning against the ruling BJP. She had openly attacked Raje several times during the meeting for the preparation of ‘Swabhimaan Sammelan’. She appealed to the people to uproot the Raje government and even alleged that the chief minister was not a Rajput.
Chitra Singh recently appealed to the Rajput community members to stay away from Raje’s ‘Kshatranni Sammelan’ which in Jaisalmer on August 23.
She objected to Raje presiding over it as she was “not a Rajput”. Post Chitra’s appeal, Rajputs distanced themsevles from the ‘Kshatranni Sammelan’ and the the Rajput tag was dropped from it. Later it was rechristened as ‘Mahila Sammelan’. Our party’s strategy differs from election to election. It changes according to the requirements and circumstances. We also keep changing our strategy because other parties copy our strategies and tactics. This time our mantra is jan sampark or outreach to the people. That’s why we have planned a series of events to reach out to people and seek votes in BJP’S favour. We organised the Maha Jansampark from November 2-4, through which we connected with around 70 lakh people.
From November 5-8, we will carry out the Pariwar Milan programme under which workers in our 1,032 mandals will celebrate Diwali with families aligned with the BJP. From November 8-11, we will hold Prabuddh Nagarik Sneh Sammelan to interact with intellectuals. On November 10-11, we will organise the ‘Mera Pariwar BJP Pariwar’, in which workers in each constituency will meet families and put BJP flags and stickers on their homes. As part of our youth outreach, there will be Yuva Town Hall on November 21-22 and on November 30, we will organise the ‘Kamal Diya Abhiyan’, in which our workers will go door to door and light diyas.
This time we are focusing on telling people about the welfare schemes and development done by the governments of our chief
minister Vasundhara Raje and Prime Minister Narendra
Modi. We are carrying out our campaign through the social media. We will also be using 50 raths with LED boards on which we will give information about various government schemes and also show short films on beneficiaries of our government schemes. These raths tour each of the 200 assembly constituencies. This time we are also using traditional media and are also reaching out to the voters through street plays and puppet shows to convey the message of development. Traditional media has its own reach and impact. For us the only issue is development. Development under the state and central governments
is unquestionable and the opposition cannot stand on that. And we are going to the voters with our development agenda.
For the BJP, Ram mandir is not an issue, it is a matter of faith. Those who visit temples to offer prayers only during elections, it is an issue for them. It is the Congress that is basing its campaign on propaganda and lies and using the issue of Ram mandir.
Our stars are Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah. But of course others too will be involved. UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath too will be campaigning extensively. The demand for campaigners is area-specific as per the demography and culture. Several leaders from the centre and state will campaign in the state.