Jaswant’s son banks on father’s legacy to trump Raje

JAIPUR: Pitted against Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) bastion of Jhalrapatan, former union minister Jaswant Singh’s son Manvendra Singh is banking on Rajput “anger” and his father’s legacy to win the toughest electoral battle of his life.

A former Lok Sabha member and now an MLA from Sheo constituency in Barmer, he was nominated within a month of joining the Congress to ight Raje, a decision that surprised many − including the candidate himself.

“I wanted to contest the (2019) Lok Sabha polls but have been ielded by the party to contest the assembly polls. It is indeed a tough battle for the fact that I am new to Jhalrapatan while Raje has been winning the seat since 2003,” Singh, a colonel in the Territorial Army who saw action during the 1999 Kargil war, said in an interview.

A small town in Jhalawar district, Jhalrapatan is among the most keenlywatched seats where the contest is as much personal as political.

Besides Muslims and Dalits, who form the bulk of voters in Jhalrapatan, the Congress by ielding Singh, is eyeing the sizable Rajput electorate which has traditionally voted for the BJP but has been increasingly growing disenchanted with the ruling party.

The Rajput discontent against Raje stems from the denial in 2014 of a ticket to BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh − a former foreign, inance and defence minister, party vice president and a close conidante of late prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee − to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Barmer, his home district. The BJP had then ielded Congress turncoat and Jat leader Sonaram Chaudhary, who won the seat.

Jaswant Singh, 80, who lost contesting as an independent in the 2014, has virtually faded into political oblivion after a stroke after a fall.

The Singh family holds Raje responsible for denying Jaswant Singh a ticket in 2014 and by defeating the chief minister, it is hoping to “avenge the insult and humiliation” of the Rajputs by the BJP.

Even though he insists the “battle of Jhalrapatan” is a political ight between the Congress and the BJP, Singh, he, nonetheless, says it is “Rajput pride” − which made him quit the BJP and embrace the Congress − that is at stake.

“We have been consistently targeted by Raje and the BJP. My joining the Congress was not a personal decision but of the people of not only of Jhalrapatan but entire Rajasthan who are angry over the nature and culture of governance, years of misrule and humiliation,” he said.