Triangular fight likely in Ramgarh assembly bypoll on January 28

The assembly by-election in Alwar’s Ramgarh constituency is likely to be a triangular contest between the Congress, BJP and BSP candidates, say political experts.

The three parties have fielded new faces in Ramgarh, where polling in Rajasthan assembly election on December 7 was countermanded after the death of BSP candidate Lakshman Singh Chaudhary. Now, the bypoll is scheduled on January 28.

Experts said the constituency will witness a triangular contest for the first time in 20 years. Jagat Singh, son of former external affairs minister Natwar Singh, is now the BSP candidate who will face Congress’ Saphia Khan and BJP’s Sukhwant Singh.

Jagat Singh was the BJP MLA from Kaman in the 2013-2018 assembly, but the party denied him ticket this time. He is organising corner meetings and his wife, Somaya, is doing door-to-door campaigning for him.

BJP candidate Sukhwant Singh is former pradhan (head of block panchayat body). He is depending on former MLA Gyan Deo Ahuja, who was dropped by the party. Ahuja said the fight in Ramgarh was between BJP and Congress candidates. The BSP candidate, he added, will be third.

Congress candidate Saphia Khan is wife of former MLA Zubair Khan. She said her husband’s track record and development work done during her tenure as the Zila Pramukh (head of district panchayat body) will stand her in good stead.

Former union minister and Alwar MP Jitendra Singh started campaigning for her from Thursday. “Party leaders from different parts of the state are coming to Ramgarh to work for the Congress candidate because if we win this seat, we will have 100 legislators in the house of 200 members,” he said.

Political expert HS Goyal said, “If the situation remains like this till the voting day, the Congress candidate will gain. If the election gets polarised and the BJP candidate seems weak, then BJP voters may shift towards BSP,” he said.

Ramgarh has a majority of Meo Muslim voters who number around 65,000. The SCs are 35,000 and Rajputs 31,000.

First Published: Jan 23, 2019 15:23 IST