Rajasthan’s Gurjars are upset at Congress’s ‘betrayal’ of Sachin Pilot. For BJP, it’s an opportunity

Gurjars largely voted for Congress in the 2018 Rajasthan assembly elections in the hope that Sachin Pilot would become CM. With that possibility fading, the BJP is looking to capitalise.

Kotputli assembly constituency, about 115 km from Jaipur, has been a Congress stronghold for the last two decades. But whispers of discontent can now be heard amid the fields of mustard and millets, particularly from the Gurjar community, which accounts for roughly a quarter of its population.

Gurjars across the state primarily supported the Congress in the 2018 assembly elections due to their aspiration to see Sachin Pilot become the Chief Minister. However, five years later, the tumultuous relationship between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot Gehlot and Pilot has caused many to become disillusioned, including in Kotputli.

“Gurjars supported Congress in 2018 because they believed Sachin would become Chief Minister. But Everybody knows that Gehlot will never allow Sachin to become CM as long as he is in power,” said Umrao Gurjar, a farmer in Sundar Pura village in Kotputli.

The largely rural constituency is currently part of the Kotputli Behror district, which was carved out of Jaipur and Alwar districts earlier this year. The total number of voters here is about 2.25 lakh, and according to local BJP surveys, the biggest voting blocs are the Gurjars, numbering around 55,000, followed by the Yadavs at 40,000.

Kotputli has traditionally voted for the Congress, including in 2013, when Vasundhara Raje led the BJP to a historic victory, securing 163 out of 200 seats in the Rajasthan assembly. In that election, Kotputli was the only constituency in Jaipur district out of the 19 assembly seats that the Congress won.

For the upcoming election, the Congress has again pinned its hopes on incumbent MLA and minister Rajendra Singh Yadav, who belongs to the second-largest community in the region, but the sentiment on the ground has changed.

Yadav won this seat in 2018 with the support of Saini, Dalit, and Scheduled Tribe mobilisation. He also received the support of Gurjars, who were eager for Sachin Pilot to become the first Gurjar CM. However, this aspiration was left unfulfilled, and local disgruntlement regarding Gehlot’s perceived dominance within the party casts a shadow over Yadav’s prospects in Kotputli.

Adding another layer to the electoral dynamics, farmers in the region have been staging protests for the past nine months against the alleged environmental hazards stemming from the presence of the cement giant, Ultratech. This has become a major election issue here, with many residents reportedly expressing anger at political indifference over their concerns.

Meanwhile, the BJP has fielded Hansraj Patel, a Gurjar candidate and a former BJP rebel from the 2018 election, to secure Gurjar votes. Notably, Mukesh Goyal, the BJP’s 2018 candidate, has now become a rebel, posing challenges for the BJP’s campaign.

However, Gurjar influence is not limited to just Koputli but also several other constituencies where the community holds sway, especially in eastern Rajasthan.