Yadav vs Yadav showdown in Alwar’s poll tomorrow
■ BJP’s Bhupendra, Cong’s Lalit to flex muscles
Rajasthan’s Alwar is going to witness a poll battle between two Yadavs: one a sitting Congress MLA — Lalit Yadav — and other a Union minister — Bhupendra Yadav. While the Congress candidate boasts of being a “local”, the BJP candidate promises water in the region through the eastern Rajasthan canal projects (ERCP) and “Jal Jivan Mission”, and referred to the medical colleges, universities and the export promotion zone that Alwar has got during the last 10 years of Narendra Modi government.
Water and decreasing water table is a major issue as Alwar falls in this north-eastern region of Rajasthan. Alwar parliamentary seat has been with the BJP since 2014 and the BJP candidate and Union minister Bhupendra Yadav is confident that the desert state will repeat its 2019 feat, giving his party all 25 Lok Sabha seats. Alwar is a Yadav-dominated seat, where Bhupendra Yadav is seeking "36 biradari ke votes(in common parlance votes of all castes and communities)”. This is Mr Yadav’s first Lok Sabha election. The Alwar parliamentary seat will go to polls in the first phase on April 19.
“This is for the first time that people are not discussing who will win and who will loose but how many seats the BJP will win,” said Mr Yadav, while speaking to this newspaper during his campaign trail. Rejecting the Opposition’s claim of “anti-incumbency”, Mr Yadav said, “The coming polls are about pro-governance and people’s support for ‘Modi ki Guarantee’.”
Mr Yadav is Union minister for environment and forest and climate change and labour and employment in the Modi government. He also rejected the Opposition’s allegation against the BJP manifesto, and rather called it a manifesto of “consistency and continuity” and a “pathway for 2047”.
“Our government has achieved what we had promised and the manifesto (2024) is about adding more and giving more. It (manifesto) is a document of consistency and continuity, it’s a pathway for 2047 Viksit Bharat,” Mr Yadav asserted. He also took a jibe at the Opposition camp, saying within the alliance “no one knows who is with whom, they are friends in one state and fighting against each other in another state”.
To a question on Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi’s roadshow in Alwar, Mr Yadav said it was a “flop show”.
Though Alwar has a significant Yadav population, Jats, Dalits, Muslims, Sainis and Ahirs are also in good numbers there.
Holding “jansabhas” (public gatherings) at chaupals in villages, Mr Yadav reminds the “vikas” under Modi government and “Modi ki guarantee” for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.