Constituency watch: Three-way contest on the cards in Bharatpur city

The Bharatpur city assembly constituency is expected to witness a triangular contest among the BJP, Congress and Bharat Vahini Party candidates in the December 7 Rajasthan assembly election.

The constituency has 1,45,897 voters, including 66,877 female. Jat, Brahmin, Scheduled Caste and Mahajan are dominant communities in the seat. Unemployment, stray cattle menace, poor condition of roads and parks are some of the issues the opposition parties plan to raise during their campaign.

Present MLA Vijay Bansal of the BJP said he has carried out many development works in the assembly segment in the past 15 years and hopes to retain the seat for the ruling party. “Bharatpur district became divisional headquarters while a medical college, Maharaja Surajmal Brij University, Lohagarh Stadium, four-lane national highway from Agra to Jaipur were set up during my tenure as MLA,” said the three-time MLA.

He won from the seat on BJP ticket in 2008 and 2013 while in 2003, he won as a Indian National Lok Dal nominee. In 2013, he defeated BSP candidate Dalveer Singh by 22,694 votes. “Chambal project is the main achievement in my tenure to provide drinking water in city and rural areas. A Gaurav path has been constructed by spending by Rs 60 lakh in each panchayat,” said 64-year-old Bansal, who was the chairman of Bharatpur Municipal Council from 1994 to 1999. Subhash Garg, Ashok Awasthi and Dharmendra Sharma are some of the prominent candidates seeking Congress nomination in the assembly segment.

“I have been spreading public welfare policies of the Congress among the people. I have covered all villages in the constituency under Mera Gaurav Mera Booth drive,” said Subhash Garg, former chairman of Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education. “Bharatpur city constituency needs Yamuna water, Chambal water, water from Panchna dam in Karauli. Chambal drinking water project was set up during the Congress rule. But, its water did not reach many areas in city and villages,” he said.

“People in the city have been facing stray cattle menace. Municipal Corporation failed to provide good parks, lights, roads in the city,” Garg said. Girdhari Tiwari, divisional in-charge of Bharat Vahini Party and its candidate in the seat, said the people have decided to remove the BJP and Congress after both the parties failed to develop the constituency. “They enjoyed and earned. However, ignored the people during their MLA tenure,” Tiwari said.

Another Congress leader Ashok Awasthi said Bharatpur had been included in the National Capital Region but no development was being seen in the constituency. Congress city block president Sanjay Shukla said people were fed up with the BJP and decided to support the Congress. “All roads even at divisional headquarters are lying damaged.”

Shweta Cheema, BJP municipal corporation councillor, said the BJP MLA always supports people to solve their problems and developed the city with support of the civic body.

First Published: Oct 23, 2018 14:57 IST