CM Vasundhra Raje ups poll ante in Nasirabad

AJMER: Chief minister Vasundhra Raje was busy feeling the pulse of BJP workers in Nasirabad town of the district on Wednesday. After winning all the eight assembly seats from Ajmer district, BJP had lost the Nasirabad assembly seat last year in a byelection after the late Sanwar Lal Jat vacated the seat to contest Lok Sabha elections. The Congress had emerged victorious in a tight race by 386 votes.

Raje met different community leaders and addressed booth-level workers directly. She asked them to carry out campaigns about the government's development projects and their success at the grassroots level.

Nasirabad was a traditional seat of Congress which had a large Gujjar vote bank. Govind Singh Gujjar has been the popular leader from this constituency. But with the redrawing of the constituency following the addition of villages from Bhinai and surrounding blocks, the equation changed as Gujjars gave way to Rawat and Jat dominancy. The chief minister is also planning to cash in on the sympathy vote following the death of Sanwar Lal Jat, who has dominated Nasirabad for the last 10 years.

Raje has been visiting Ajmer district frequently. This was her seventh such trip over the last 20 days, excluding her visit to Dudu assembly constituency of Jaipur, which is part of Ajmer Lok Sabha seat.

While she didn't make any announcements to attract micro communities, she was instead looking to feel the pulse of local people, especially booth-level BJP workers.

Congress president Sachin Pilot had pulled out all stops to win the Nasirabad bypoll and managed to retain it as the party's only one in Ajmer district.

Though the BJP had put up a Jat as well as a woman, Sarita Gaina, as their candidate in Nasirabad, they still lost it marginally.

Sources said that Raje during her visit today also discussed the polarization of votes in the constituency.

There are about 1.98 lakh votes in the assembly constituency. While Gujjars and Jats dominate, Rawats and Dalits are also important factors.

The region is mostly rural and consists of farmers. According to sources, Raje avoided the more prominent leaders and only spoke to local ones in order to understand caste equations.

The party has decided to identify important caste leaders in Ajmer constituency and invite them to join BJP.

During her visit to Nasirabad town, Raje spoke of her efforts to denotify four wards from the army cantonment area so as to forma a nagar palika for more local representation and development.