Jat Votes Key In Fight At Rajasthan's Bharatpur, Once A Princely State

Bharatpur in eastern Rajasthan, known for the migratory birds that flock here every winter, is now looking at some realpolitik. It is one of the only two former princely kingdoms in Rajasthan that had Jat rulers; the other one in neighbouring Dholpur is the home turf of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, its former Maharani.

Another former royal has had an equally successful career, the former Maharaja of Bharatpur Vishwendra Singh, who held the Bharatpur seat since the 1990s representing it three times as a parliamentarian and twice as a state legislator.

He switched to state politics after Bharatpur became a constituency reserved for the Scheduled Castes in 2009 following a delimitation exercise.

Along with Dholpur and Karauli, Bharatpur is one of the seven reserved seats in Rajasthan.

Vishwendra Singh may not be the Congress's official candidate from Bharatpur for the Lok Sabha election, but he is the face of the party's campaign here. Slogans of "Maharaj sahib zindabad" resound as Vishwendra Singh hits the campaign trail. At political meetings, apart from garlands, people offer him small crowns or mukuts - a tradition in this area, which is the land of Braj and Krishna, Mathura and Vrindavan being only a few kilometres away.

The Congress's official candidate Abhijeet Kumar is a retired income tax officer. "This election depends on Maharaj sahib on how he can he swing the Jat and upper caste votes. The Scheduled Caste votes are anyway with the Congress. Look at the December 2018 (assembly) elections. We won 22 of the 34 reserved seats and that's a success rate of 62 per cent," said Mr Kumar.

In Rajasthan's Bharatpur, the BJP has put its hopes on Ranjita Kohli, daughter-in-law of two-time former parliamentarian Gangaram Kohli

Getting a big pie of the Jat vote will be key to winning this election, say analysts. At over four lakh of the population and 23 per cent of the vote bank, they are the other dominant community in this region.

Claiming ancestry from Raja Suraj Mal, who ruled Bharatpur in the 18th century, the Jats still look up to Vishwendra Singh, who claims to be a direct descent of Raja Suraj Mal.

"Absolutely, I am fighting this as my own election," said Vishwendra Singh. "The candidate is of my choice and yes, being from the royal family, people here have a relationship with me that goes back generations. I consider myself a commoner but people here look to me as the head of the family," he added.

The BJP has put its hopes on Ranjita Kohli, daughter-in-law of two-time former parliamentarian Gangaram Kohli and one of the three women candidates the BJP has given tickets to in Rajasthan.

"I'm not a political greenhorn," said Ranjita Kohli. "My father-in-law was a two-time MP from here and I have everyone's blessings; people vote in the name of (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji," she said.

Right on the border with Uttar Pradesh, the elephant has left its footprint in Bharatpur. In the December assembly elections, the BJP did not get a single seat here. The Congress won four out of eight assembly seats. Of the four they did not win, two went to Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party with a vote share of 4 per cent. This time, the BSP may heat up the fight in Bharatpur again.

Rajasthan will vote on May 6 in the fifth phase of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections.