Rajasthan elections 2018: Vasundhara Raje goes against party’s pre-poll assessment

Vasundhara Raje, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan has given the legal approval for the BJP’s first list of candidates for Rajasthan. The list shows that Vasundhara Raje managed to have a major say in the selection of candidates in spite of the high expertise’s efforts to limit her powers.

After a BJP Parliamentary Board meeting in Delhi, late Sunday night, BJP declared names of 131 candidates for Rajasthan assembly elections which are going to be held on 7^th December. This year, 25 new faces are added by the party whereas 85 MLA’s are reserved in the list. Vasundhara Raje, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan is going to contest from Jhalrapatan, which she is representing since the year 2003.

All the 85 MLAs in the list will compete from their present seats. The list comprised of 12 women, 32 youth leaders, 17 SC and 19 ST candidates. The BJP Parliamentary Board meeting was headed by PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah who is the Party President of BJP. The meeting was attended by senior party leaders of Rajasthan, comprising Raje. The list shows that Vasundhara Raje has a major say in the selection of candidates.

In spite of a pre-poll exercise intended at substituting many of the officials, the BJP high expertise has selected 85 representatives in the first list of 131 officials, specifying it has conceded to Vasundhara Raje’s pressure for recalling her supporters and making other state leaders irrelevant such as Arjun Ram Meghwal and Gajendra Singh.

Vasundhara Raje’s approval on the list indicates two things: One, the BJP central headship allowed the CM Vasundhara Raje to compete in the elections the way she wishes to, and secondly, it is suspicious of revolution more than anti-incumbency.

From the day when nominees were declared, it was broadly assumed that out of 200-members, more than 60 percent of the BJP representatives would be discarded. Apparently, the BJP’s own analyses projected that around 115 officials may lose in the contest.

By the response of the provided analysis, BJP had directed an intricate pre-poll exercise to discover substitutes through opinion from several agencies, state leaders and Autonomous spectators. In the end, with just 23 officials getting swapped, the procedural curved out to be pretence.

Vasundhara Raje appeared to have carried to the high command that it would be difficult for new faces to battle with the dominant BJP protesters and the twin effects of anti-incumbency in a large sum of electorates.

If the Congress selects its candidates cleverly, then BJP would find the opposition tough and there would be great chances for congress to win. There is strong risk of triple anti-incumbency for BJP such as risk against the Centre, the state and the local candidate who are working against the party.

Vasundhara Raje’s authority in Rajasthan has been recognised by the party. This may, of course, cut both ways. If she manages to win Rajasthan, the chief minister’s will re-establish her as a party’s strong leader and will be privileged by the party, making her the involuntary choice for the top job.

But, if the BJP loses, Vasundhara Raje would be blamed and answerable and would be held the only one responsible for the loss, specifically after selecting candidates of her own choice.