Will delay in ticket finalisation hurt Congress in Rajasthan?

New Delhi: Though the Congress has claimed to have ended the feud between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and his former deputy Sachin Pilot, all is not well in the grand old party with just weeks to go for crucial Assembly polls.

The Congress may have declared the preliminary lists for Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Telangana, but is yet to finalise its candidates for the Rajasthan assembly polls. Sources stated that the party is fearing a repeat of a major rebellion in the state if the ticket distribution doesn’t go according to the fancies of any of the major two factions in the fray to garner the major chunk of nominations.

While the two factions fight it out for the major chunk of the influence, it is the grand old party which will be the loser, many party leaders feel. Unlike Karnataka where the Congress has announced the names of its candidates almost one month before the announcement of poll dates by the Election Commission of India, in Rajasthan it is yet to wake up from its slumber, sources pointed out.

It is understood that the Congress screening committee meeting for the Rajasthan assembly polls will be held on October 17 in New Delhi. While the meeting of the central election committee is scheduled to be held on October 18, sources said.  

Voting for the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly is scheduled to take place on November 25, while the counting of votes will be done on December 3.

With the delay of each day, the Congress seems to be less confident of a return to power in the desert state. “The party is panicking over the risky proposition of benching several sitting MLAs and the anticipation of a wave of disgruntled and rebel leaders that could end up hurting Congress’ official candidates,” sources said.

Though the Karnataka plan has been hailed for its strategic and timely implementation, many in the Congress are unable to see the logic behind the delay in naming the official candidates of the party, sources said.

The delay persists even though senior leaders had publicly claimed that at least the first list of candidates for Rajasthan would be declared within the first fortnight of September.

The party is also grappling with heavy anti-incumbency against many sitting party MLAs and the Ashok Gehlot government, including some ministers.

With several of these leaders likely to be denied tickets, the party may see a wave of rebellion in the forthcoming days. Though Gehlot had earlier agreed to drop several of these sitting legislators, he is now understood to be pushing for the allocation of tickets for them, sources said.

With Jananayak Janata Party entering the fray, by deciding to field candidates in over 30 Jat-dominated seats of the state, the Congress has also been forced to reassess the candidature of some of its potential nominees in such constituencies, sources said.

In the 2018 Assembly polls, the BJP was only able to secure 75 seats in the 200-member legislature, losing the crucial state to the Congress which was able to secure 99 seats.  

Rajasthan is an important state on the national political map and political parties including Congress, BJP, AAP and BSP are aiming to secure votes and seats ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. 

Unless the Congress leadership takes a call to completely back its leadership in Rajasthan soon, the much-anticipated close contest this time around will be lost by the grand old party.