Thirteen constituencies will go to polls in the second and final phase of the 2024 general election in Rajasthan. Among the keenly-watched contests in the second phase is the fight for Jalore seat, where a Congress stalwart’s son faces a BJP grassroots leader.
Vaibhav Gehlot, former Chief Minister and Congress veteran Ashok Gehlot’s son, is the party’s pick for Jalore, which the BJP has held for two decades now. He is up against the BJP’s Lumbaram Chaudhary, a grassroots worker who started his political journey from the panchayat level.
Vaibhav Gehlot had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Jodhpur, but lost to BJP leader and Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat by over 2.5 lakh votes.
Both sides have launched extensive campaigns for the high-profile contest. While the BJP organised rallies by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, the Congress is holding door-to-door campaigns and roped in senior leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for a mega rally on April 14.
In fact, it was in Jalore where Prime Minister Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress, saying that the party that once won 400 seats in Lok Sabha is now struggling to find candidates for 300. He said the Congress was suffering due to its “sins”.
Mr Shah’s attack targeted Ashok Gehlot. In a rally on Saturday, the Union Home Minister said the Congress veteran was “stuck” in his son’s campaign. “The son is going to lose the election by a huge margin,” he said, claiming that Rajasthan is going to give all seats to NDA for the third time in a row.
The Congress candidate, however, is hopeful. “The people have made up their minds to eliminate BJP from this Lok Sabha Elections as their MPs have done no work in the last 20 years and they want a change this time in Jalore Lok Sabha constituency. They want change,” Vaibhav Gehlot has said.
Asked if his opponent Lumbaram Choudhary’s grassroots experience gives him an advantage, Vaibhav said, “I got the opportunity to contest for the Lok Sabha elections after working for 16-17 years in the party. I have worked in the Youth Congress. I got my place in the party after working for 10 years.”
One factor that the Congress hopes to gain from is that Jalore has a significant population of people from the Mali community, and Vaibhav Gehlot, too, belongs to the community.
In a rally in support of Vaibhav Gehlot, Ms Gandhi Vadra said Prime Minister Modi “is completely cut off from the people” and officers are “scared” of telling him the reality. She also slammed the BJP for halting the previous Ashok Gehlot government’s welfare schemes after coming to power last year.
Jalore is among 10 Rajasthan seats where the BJP dropped its sitting MPs while choosing candidates for this Lok Sabha election. The incumbent, Devji Patel, won the Jalore seat in the 2009, 2014 and 2019 polls. Of the eight Assembly segments under this parliamentary constituency, four are held by the BJP, three by the Congress and one by an Independent MLA.
