Rahul aide's battle royale in Alwar

Alwar: Rahul Gandhi was in Alwar on Monday, seeking votes for his trusted lieutenant Jitendra Singh. The Alwar royal skipped the last Assembly elections, reportedly on Rahul Gandhi's advice who wanted him in Parliament as a member of his "youth brigade" to infuse fresh blood into the Congress.

"People think that since he is working with Rahul Gandhi and at the AICC, he has access to more people. That's why they think he can get big projects and get work done much faster than other MPs. So that's a big help," Jitendra said.

But despite Rahul's support, Jitendra's entry into Parliament is no cakewalk. The BJP has played a clever caste card by fielding a Yadav candidate to encash the nearly three lakh Yadav voters Alwar. Though Jitendra plays down his royal link, his rival slams him as an inaccessible Prince.

"I know the problems of ordinary people and how to solve them. In contrast, people have seen that Jitendra has done little as an MLA for ten years. So people here don't have any faith in these royals," said Kiran Yadav, the BJP candidate from Alwar.

Youth Congress workers from all over the country are flooding into Alwar, but Jitendra's task isn't easy as six of the eight MLAs here are now from the BJP.

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Rahul Gandhi's backing for Alwar's royal candidate has turned this into a high stakes battle, for the verdict here could well decide the kind of role that GenNext leaders get to play in the future of Rajasthan's politics.