Warm-Up Match Before The Finals

In an assembly election year, the BJP and Congress pull out all the stops for the Ajmer, Alwar, Mandalgarh bypolls

- Rohit Parihar

Three imminent by elections, to the Ajmer and Alwar parliamentary constituencies and the Mandalgarh assembly seat, could well signal the way Rajasthan will go in the legislative assembly elections expected in December. All the three contests will be straight fights between the Vasundhara Raje-led ruling BJP and the Congress, which is looking to make a comeback under Sachin Pilot.

With the stakes high, Pilot has sagaciously opted to field Raghu Sharma, a confidant of former chief minister Ashok Gehlot, from Ajmer (Pilot’s home constituency). In doing so, he has not only ensured that the usually inimical Gehlot is compelled to participate in the campaign, but also that the bypoll result does not become a verdict on his own (Pilot’s) leadership. In Alwar, too, the young party chief has had his way in nominating his man, Karan Singh Yadav, as the Congress candidate in place of former Union minister Jitendra Singh, who lost the seat in 2014.