In battle for ballots, stakes are high for Raje, Pilot

Ram Swaroop Prajapati, 90, has not received his old age pension for the past four months. But he is more upset with Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje for discontinuing free medicine schemes in hospitals.

"I voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the last elections. But not this time," says Prajapati, seated on a wooden bench with other villagers of Weir constituency.

Such voices grow louder in villages of Bharatpur, where roads are eaten by potholes, power cuts are frequent and prolonged, and there is no system for sewage disposal. Water scarcity continues to be a major issue.

The government's decision to close some schools in villages and upgrade others into higher secondary schools has not gone down well with villagers either. "The government can't shut schools overnight," says Ramcharan Saini of Chhokarwara village. "Our children now need to walk two-three km to a nearby village to attend school. Parents fear for the safety of their children on these accident-prone roads. Some were forced to admit their children in a private school."

A senior bureaucrat in the state admits pensions have been delayed by four months. "Pension is transferred through money order. But the post office doesn't have enough staff," the official says. "People don't understand that we are restructuring the school system. Instead of having four schools short of staff and basic amenities, we are pooling resources and upgrading them," he adds.

Elections in four Assembly seats, Nasirabad in Ajmer, Kota South and Weir in Bharatpur and Surajgarh in Jhunjhunu, are scheduled for Saturday. Results will be declared three days later on September 16. The seats fell vacant after sitting members were elected to Parliament in this year's Lok Sabha polls.

"Raje has done nothing since she took over in December last year. The people are really disenchanted," says state Congress President Sachin Pilot, who has been camping in these four Assembly segments for the past few days. "I have addressed 72 public meetings in Weir alone," he says, driving through waterlogged and dimly-lit lanes of Alipur village in his SUV, followed by a convoy of 20 cars.

Winning these seats is a matter of prestige for Pilot, who was recently appointed the Congress president in the state to revive the party after a drubbing in the Assembly elections. The BJP had won 163 of Rajasthan's 200 Assembly seats.

Congress leaders are hopeful of winning Weir and Nasirabad. "The BJP's Weir candidate is over 80 years old. People don't want another by-election, if anything happens to him. They want someone who can run around. Nasirabad is part of Pilot's parliamentary constituency and dominated by people from his caste. Pilot has made it an ego issue," says a senior state Congress leader who did not want to be named.

Political experts say Raje, too, is leaving no stone unturned to win these by-polls despite her party's impressive victories in the Assembly and parliamentary elections. Most of her ministers and legislators are campaigning door to door for the BJP candidates. The party's leaders have carved up the job of seeking votes from their communities. "There is a rumour in the state that the BJP central leadership is planning to remove Raje from her post. If she loses two seats, it will be difficult for her to negotiate in Delhi," says Manish Godha, a senior journalist in Jaipur.

In the past four days, Raje has held rallies in all four Assembly seats. "First you (Congress) show us your performance record of 52 years, and then I will show mine. We will fulfil our promises," she said at a rally in Banswara in Bharatpur.

The BJP is hopeful of winning South Kota, considered a bastion of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, and Surajgarh, where the caste factor favours it.