Rajasthan's caste cauldron heats up ahead of polls

The electoral battle in the newly carved out Lok Sabha seat of Sawai Madhopur, home to Ranthambore National Park, and architecture rich Tonk serve as the perfect example of Rajasthan's heated caste cauldron. Congress' Namo Narayan Meena is in the fray in Sawai Madhopur, while BJP nominee and Gujjar leader Kirori Singh Bainsla is slugging it out from Tonk, but their campaign strategies are identical - whip up caste and reservation aspirations and sprinkle it with issues of development.    

"Development is definitely an issue here... But no one can deny social justice and equality too. The Gujjars had never got a fair representation in government services and other such forums as they never got the benefit of reservation," Bainsla told PTI during his campaign.   

Sharing similar views, Meena, who is also a Union Minister of State, says that he has "no issues with the grant of reservation to Gujjars finalised by the state Assembly last year". "More than 36 castes in my constituency have pledged support to me. The Gujjars too are supporting me. The reservation is a constitutional matter and my party was instrumental in passing the economically backward class reservation last year," Meena said.