Rajasthan Assembly Elections: Congress candidate Sachin Pilot's roadshow at Tonk
After an elaborate roadshow and a visit to the Shiv temple, Rajasthan Congress chief Sachin Pilot on Monday, filed his nomination papers for the Assembly elections due in the state on December 7. The 41-year-old Congress leader will be contesting from Tonk, set to see pitched poll battle as the BJP, in a last minute change of strategy, replaced Ajit Singh Mehta and fielded a minister and minority candidate and Yunus Khan. The Congress, breaking a 46-year-old tradition of fielding a Muslim candidate from Tonk, has given the ticket to Mr Pilot.
Mr Pilot, after filing his nomination, said that it is a fight between the ideologies of his party and the BJP and the Congress would "not only win the election in Tonk, but also the entire state with a sizable margin."
Tonk is a constituency dominated by minority voters including Muslims, Scheduled Castes and Gujjars but interestingly in the last six elections, the BJP has won the seat four times. In 2013, the BJP won by a margin of over 30,000 votes.
Geographically Tonk is close to Mr Pilot's Lok Sabha constituencies - Ajmer and Dausa - from where he won in 2004 and 2009 respectively but lost the last elections to BJP's Sanwar Lal Jat in 2014.
Mr Pilot's rival candidate, Yunus Khan, who also filed his nomination papers today, is the only Muslim candidate pitted in the election by the BJP. "I would not like to comment on caste and religion. I have seen tension on Sachin Pilot's face. We both have come to Tonk for the first time as election nominees," Mr Khan said, adding that he had always accepted his party's decision and was ready to work anywhere in the country.
The other heavyweights, who filed their nominations on the last day, are former chief minister Ashok Gehlot and BJP veteran Jaswant Singh's son Manvendra Singh, who joined the Congress last month. While Mr Gehlot is contesting from Sardarpura in Jodhpur, a seat he has won six times, Manvendra Singh is taking on chief minister Vasundhara Raje on her home turf, Jahlrapatan in Jhalawar district, which has been sending her to the Assembly since 2003.
While Manvendra Singh's campaign focused on how the BJP ignored the issues of the Rajput community and said that his fight for swabhiman or self-respect will continue, an unfazed Raje said, "the Congress couldn't find a place for Manvendra Singh and so they sent him here (Jahlrapatan)."