Rajasthan polls: It's caste politics all the way, Rajasthan Poll, Caste role in upcoming assembly poll 2013, Latest news, Rajasthan, Caste politics, Rajasthan BJP, Rajasthan Govt.
- Details
- Category: Rajasthan News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 20:50
Rajasthan polls: It's caste politics all the way.
JAIPUR: It's a known fact that elections in the state are fought on caste and community lines and not on issues. Though issues like inflation, corruption and governance are raised by political parties, ultimately it's the caste factor that comes to the mind eventually. In Rajasthan, close competition between castes or caste clusters result in conflict sometimes. The competition between Jats and Rajputs has been transformed into a bipolar party situation.
In 1952, when the first elections were held, the state has come out from the influence of princes following the merger of states in Indian Union. But in 1952 vidhan sabha elections, the princes fielded a large number of their nominees. The praja or the electorate was under the hangover of the feudal era and they voted in large number in their favour. As a result, 54 Rajputs were elected in a house of 160 in 1952. In this election, the share of Jats was 12, Brahmins 22, Muslims two and the SC,10.
But after the 1952 elections, because of greater awareness, the Rajputs started losing their grip and in 1957 only 26 could win. In fact, the Jats started showing their power and in 1957 the number snowballed from 12 to 23. The Rajputs started getting marginalized after the emergence of Jats and Bishnois.
But Rajputs once out of their palaces and with clear political options regained their lost pride when they won 26 seats as compared to the Jat-Bishnoi combo of 30. But out of the 26 Rajput winners, 16 were BJP and eight Congress. This shows the leaning of the Rajputs towards the BJP. In case of the Jats, the number was reversed ie, 16 Congress and eight BJP with one CPM and four Independents.
To see more about upcoming assembly election updates in Rajasthan...Please check this link
Even main political parties like Congress and BJP always provides benefits for the different castes and communities through their manifestos. Both the parties have asked the ticket aspirants to mention their caste as this would be the main consideration for nominations.
In the present vidhan sabha, there are 17 Vaishyas,14 Brahmins, 12 Muslims, seven Gurjars, four Malis, four Kulvis (Choudhrys), three Yadavs, three Kumawats, two Punjabis, two Sikhs, two Sindhis, two Rebaris, two Kalals, two Rawats and a Seervi, Dhakar, and Dangi each.
The Congress and the BJP are trying to woo the Rajputs and Jats in 60 assembly seats. "The BJP has inducted shooter Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and princess of Jaipur Diya Kumari and both are Rajputs. The BJP has given a very wrong message as no notable Jat was inducted in the party," said Vishvendra Singh, a scion of the former ruling family of Bharatpur and a former MP.
"The caste conflict in the state came into being after 1989 because of the Mandal Commission report. After reaching a high point through 'Mandlization', caste appears to be reaching a dead end. The issue of reservations for OBCs following Mandalisation the claims of the OBC leaders for power sharing cropped up.
Acceptance of the OBC reservation became a state policy. During the same period, various parties incorporated OBCs resulting in the changed composition of representatives. These developments have meant that the OBCs within themselves would go for greater share of power," said Vijay Bhandari, a veteran journalist and a subject expert.
The caste conflict in the state is happening for two reasons. One is caste-based identity politics and the other is quota reservations. Because of caste politics, people vote en bloc as a community and they benefit as a bloc. This is what happened when Jats were granted OBC status. Since they are powerful and well off they kind of cornered the benefit of reservations.
The Gujjars, that has an OBC status now want ST status by way of higher quota. Apart from reservations the Gujjars have another reason to protest. They have had very less political representation and they envy the Meenas who enjoy the ST status with over 500 IAS, IPS and other white-collared job holders.
The Gujjars feel that given the benefit of quota they can outclass the Meenas in all walks of life. These events also bring out a big shortcoming of the entire social justice programme based on reservations.
sourec:TOI