AHEAD OF POLLS, CONGRESS IN DISARRAY IN RAJASTHAN

Anti-incumbency and deep rooted infighting may bring the BJP to power.

- ABHINANDAN MISHRA

Unless things improve drastically, the Congress is likely to repeat its recent Gujarat election debacle in neighbouring Rajasthan where elections are scheduled for next November.

In the state where voters have changed the party in power every five years since the 11th Assembly election when the BJP government led by stalwart Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was defeated by Congress that led to the appointment of Ashok Gehlot as the Chief Minister in December 1998-it appears that in the 16th Assembly elections, anti-incumbency and deep rooted infighting will bring the BJP to power.

Participants of the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra-which entered the state in the evening of 4 December after crossing over from Madhya Pradesh's Pipaliya Kheda village in Agar-Malwa District to Chanvali, Jhalawar, in Rajasthan by walking across the bridge built on Chambal river-found that the sense of the political differences between Gehlot and Pilot was palpable in the air and visible on the numerous posters that have put by the state Congress leaders across the yatra route.

These participants-who have no political biases for or against Gehlot or his political challenger, Sachin Pilot-told The Sunday Guardian that it was clear that Gehlot and Pilot were fighting each other rather than the BJP.