In Rajasthan, village doctor's party offers alternative to Congress, BJP

Sawai Madhopur: In Laslut, a sleepy town in Sawai Madhopur district, nearly 200 km east of Jaipur, the sound of the roaring rotors of a helicopter drowns in the rants of the restive crowd. The flying machine rests on the ground to drop off Kirodhi Lal Meena, the man responsible for the sleepless nights being endured by Congress and BJP election campaign managers.

The chieftain is spearheading a third force in Rajasthan against the Congress and the BJP, whose leaders are busy assessing the extent of electoral damage his emergence will cause. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi may have caught the public’s imagination by providing a challenge to key national parties, but the advent of Kirodhi Lal’s Rashtriya Jan Party (RJP) signifies the advent of a caste-based party in the western state. This dubious distinction has thus far been reserved for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The party has caught the imagination of the Meena community, a scheduled tribe in the state. Analysts here say that the RJP is not only neutralising the effect of BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in Mewar region bordering Gujarat, but is also making electoral battle difficult for the Congress in the eastern region. With two dominant groups — Meenas and Gujjars — at loggerheads, caste will be a deciding factor in electoral preferences.

While Kirodhi Lal Meena’s equation to bring the state’s 10% Meena population under his banner has largely succeeded, he has been unable to repeat the feat of his peers in UP and Bihar; Unlike the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Kirodhi Lal has failed to align with other groups to achieve a winning combination.

Kirodhi Lal is vocal about his plan. “I have been approaching Muslims for an alliance. They are against the BJP and are indifferent to the Congress. I am the alternative,” he tells dna, while recalling that he had stood up for them during the Gopalgarh riots in Mewar region in 2011.

Muslims in Sawai Madhopur, where Kirodhi Lal is pitted against the BJP’s glamorous princess Diya Kumari, are in no mood to forgive him for his role in the murder of an “honest” Muslim SHO Phool Muhammad in 2011. With a Muslim-Meena combination still a remote prospect to upset political fortunes, Kirodhi Lal, a medical practitioner-turned-politician, is attempting to woo Jats and Rajputs, whose loyalties are divided between the Congress and the BJP.

The Muslim community remains the most undecided community in this eastern region. Baring truck drivers, who belong to the agrarian Gadhi Muslim caste, a majority wants to see the back of the Meena chieftain for his past conduct and abrasive style of functioning. But they also have little faith in the Congress party’s Danish Abrar, son of late union minister Abrar Ahmed. Despite being a protégé of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi,  Danish is a greenhorn parachuted from Delhi — ironically, against Gandhi’s own words to allow local leaders to have a say in candidate selection.

Simultaneously, a whisper campaign is making the rounds among Muslims to vote for the BJP’s Diya Kumari to defeat Kirodhi Lal in the latter’s bastion. Kumari, the scion of Jaipur royalty, has been campaigning vigorously and trying her best to throw away the yolk of royalty and appear as a commoner by ploughing fields, making rotis in kitchens and breaking bread with the rural folk. In the Muslim-dominated village of Khirni, Kumari tells dna that she wants to take everyone on the path of development, and often invokes her family’s secular credentials. Her supporters are quick to exploit Mughal emperor Akbar’s relations with Kumari’s ancestors Raja Man Singh and Jodhabai. During her door-to-door campaign in Muslim neighbourhoods, she is often greeted by chants of “Dekho, dekho kaun ayee, mamujan ki beti ayee,” a reference to history and the script of popular Bollywood movie Jodha Akbar.  

Kumari takes umbrage on being reminded of her royal background and disconnect with ordinary life. “I came to Jaipur only after my schooling,” she retorts. “I have lived with my father, who was in the Army, in ordinary flats and rented accommodations. I know the life of an ordinary person.”

Even though the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor criss-crosses the city, Sawai Madhopur, once home to Asia’s largest cement factory, is one of Rajasthan’s most backward regions. Kumari is quick to highlight this contrast, and blames successive political representatives from the region for this backwardness.

But Kumari’s suave and urbane flair is no match for Kirodhi Lal’s rustic and brazen style. Kirodhi Lal left the administration bewildered on the day he came to the district collector’s office to file his nominations. Showing no respect for the model code of conduct, he unveiled a statue of Dalit leader Babasaheb Ambedkar, which had been awaiting inauguration for the last few months.

The contest between a brash villager and an elegant princess is fast turning into a landmark battle in national politics as well. A victory for Kirodhi Lal will herald the emergence of another caste-centric political force in the country, which will have bearings on next year’s general elections.