JAIPUR: Indian state of Rajasthan that seemed to have become a laboratory for communal polarisation at the hands of Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and the RSS has dealt the BJP a massive defeat in two Parliamentary and one Assembly by polls, the counting for which was held on Thursday, Indian media reported.
This has been the first time in 40 years that the ruling party in a state and centre has been defeated in the Lok Sabha by polls. As Congress leader Sachin Pilot, told The Citizen, the results of such bypolls always go in favour of the party in power. But this time the voters brought in the Congress in both Alwar—the seat of cow mobs—and Ajmer with a decisive margin. The BJP had won all the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan in 2015.
Pilot said that the Congress victory was a defeat for the politics of communalism. And a rejection for all the gau rakshak violence, as such communalism impacted on the lives of all communities, not just the Muslims. He said that the people had, through this vote, made it clear that they were not enamoured of the politics of divisiveness, and wanted development and equal opportunities. He said that the youth in particular had come out for the Congress.
Pilot said that the BJP had tried to pull the Congress into the trap of communalism, “but we kept out of this, we stayed away and kept focusing on the economy instead. We reached out to the people of all castes and communities, without falling into the trap of polarisation, and that worked.” Happy with the success, Pilot is now looking forward to re-capturing Rajasthan from the virulent BJP rule in the Assembly polls due later this year.
