Rajasthan Assembly Election 2018: Dushyant Singh confident of mother Raje’s win in Jhalrapatan

Jhalawar MP Dushyant Singh is campaigning on behalf of his mother, chief minister Vasundhara Raje, who is busy criss-crossing the state holding rallies ahead of the assembly elections. In her absence, Dushyant is leading the campaign and is confident of her win.

A big plus for them is that they know the constituency and the people as a family for the past 30 years while Congress’ Manvendra Singh is seen as an outsider.

Travelling on the smooth national highway from Jhalawar to Chhabda, Dushyant says confidently, “We are winning all eight assembly seats, thanks to the development by the CM. Infrastructure has seen a big increase.”

He says 30 years back when Raje first fought the MP election from here, Jhalawar and Baran were different. “The Congress governments neglected the region. All development work has been done by the earlier Bhairon Singh government and the present BJP government. Infrastructure, roads, water irrigation projects have all been done by the BJP government.”

He says Raje’a absence will not affect the campaign much. She will campaign for a day towards the end, he says. “She has treated the people not as constituents but as part of her family. So every party worker is like Raje fighting. Raje is a name which is embedded in the Hadoti belt, especially Baran and Jhalawar,” he says.

How seriously are they taking Manvendra’s candidature? “An election must be fought like an election. Any election has to be fought with proper planning. We are fighting an election and we have worked hard in the region. We have done a lot of development work in the state and the district,” says Dushyant.

He agrees that beneficiaries are an important constituency for the BJP. “Beneficiaries are the most important element in today’s election and that’s what we all worked for in 5 years to create opportunities for everyone and to uplift all communities.”

However, the road to Titarkheda village, about 115 km from Jhalawar, on the Hadoti plateau with low rolling hills, where Duhsyant addresses a meeting, is dusty and bumpy. Villagers say electricity is not a problem but there is water scarcity.

Dushyant tells the people about the schemes implemented by the BJP government. “If you vote for the BJP, this development work that we have started will continue and you all will benefit,” he says. The CM’s team is putting in long hours covering 12-13 villages in a day.

Dushyant says the Congress has always fielded parachute candidates against the CM. “Manvendra has travelled 700 km from Barmer to Jhalrapatan. He calls himself a ‘Para’ but he is a parachute candidate from the Congress. He has no base here.”

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