The Hindu Business Line : In Rajasthan, `CM<I>badhiya</I>, team <I>bekaar</I>'

"Politics in our country is such that most people will only vote along party lines. But people like us will vote only for people who help us during bad times."

Ajmer , Nov. 23

"CM badhiya hai, lekin team bekaar hai (the CM is great but his team is useless)," says Tarun Kumar, owner of the Shri Kumavat restaurant located bang in the centre of the two cities of Jaipur and Ajmer.

By his own admission, he is a "kattar BJP fan" and has always voted for the lotus. "But what none of us can deny is that (Chief Minister) Ashok Gehlot has done a lot of work in drought management and the poor people in rural Rajasthan will vote for him. But we belong to the business class and feel the BJP is better for our interests."

But Kumar faces a strange dilemma on polling day. His wife's brother-in-law (sister's husband) is the Congress-I candidate in the neighbouring constituency. "I realise what is good for me but on polling day, I will waste my vote here and spend the whole day helping him win ... nahi tau biwi aur saliji dono naraaz ho jayegi (or else both my wife and her sister will get upset with me)."

But the certificate given by him to the Rajasthan CM is endorsed by villagers in the fields all along the national highway linking Jaipur to Ajmer.

On the highway abutting Palu Kalla village, about 60 km from Jaipur, Gautam Devi, accompanied by Ganga Devi and Guman, all of them Jats, have turned out in colourful ghagra-cholis and wearing jewellery too. They are waiting for a bus to take them to the town of Dudu, about 6 km away. "Winter is setting in and we need to buy woollens for the children," says Gautam Devi. This shopping expedition is special, coming as it does after three years of drought. This time, the rain gods were kind and they harvested their crop 0 days before Diwali. "We had enough money this year to buy new clothes for Diwali, and now we'll buy woollens too."

So how did they cope during the years of drought? The memory of those bad years, particularly last year which witnessed the most severe drought in over a century, darkens her eyes. "But for the good work done by our Government, we would have had a really tough time. Thanks to the efforts taken by the CM to deepen tanks, put in new ones, and give us employment and food, we didn't have to go to sleep even a single night on an empty stomach. Gehlotji looked after the people as though they were his own family."

Guman explains how the Government ensured that the villagers, both men and women, were employed in some venture or the other — deepening a tank, digging a well or constructing a road. "And each of us used to be paid 10 kg of wheat and Rs 10 per day. That came to the minimum wage of Rs 60."

The women request a lift in the car up to Dudu, which is given and along the way, take great interest in listening to more villagers on the election scene. After a Jat farmer in the next village categorically said he had no faith in the Congress and will vote only for the BJP, Gautam Devi says pragmatically, "Politics in our country is such that no matter how much good a government might do, most people will only vote along party lines. But luckily, people like us have no love for this party or that, so we vote only for people who help us during bad times."

As we drive towards Ajmer, one is struck by the near total absence of election fever in this belt. The customary posters and banners are missing and only stray BJP flags can be sighted on the odd poll.

Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee is scheduled to visit Ajmer and Udaipur the next day, but the only evidence of this are some road barricades which have been constructed along a short stretch, perhaps an election meeting venue.

At Parasoli village, about 50 km from Ajmer, Bardu, an elderly Gurjar farmer, repeats the Gehlot mantra. "Akal ke teen saal mey puri praja ko unhoney pala, jal aur anna dono hum tak pahuchaya. (For three drought-afflicted years he looked after the whole State, and gave us access to both food and water.)"

But Sita, who deals in livestock and has come all the way from Bhilwara, nearly 200 km away, to sell cattle, is bitter with the Congress Government. Even as the others pounce on her for being "ungrateful", she complains, "They might have saved human lives, but nobody bothered about the animals. During the drought, I lost so many animals because no fodder was available to them. For me these animals are my livelihood, so how can I be grateful to the Congress Government."

In Ajmer and around the Khwaja durgah, the Muslims chant "Congress-I" in a single mantra. Shahid Ali, who sells flowers near the durgah, says, "In the last five years, Muslims have been able to live in peace in Rajasthan. During the BJP's eight years, there used to be some incident or the other. We were really worried after the Gujarat riots in March 2002, but this Government ensured that the violence did not spread here. After the riots, no Muslim can ever vote for the BJP."

But once you leave the durgah area, quite a few BJP supporters can be sighted. Kanhaiya is an auto rickshaw driver, and a strong supporter of the BJP. "Whatever the Muslims might say, after all they are in the minority. The Hindus will vote for the BJP and there will be a change not only in Ajmer (which returned a Congress-I MLA last time) but all of Rajasthan," he says.

And why not! As far as Ajmer is concerned, both the parties have dissidents in the fray, who can queer the pitch.

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