Manvendra Singh, Congress candidate from Barmer, has said people are still angry with the BJP for denying ticket to his father and former veteran leader Jaswant Singh in the 2014 general elections and they will teach the saffron party a lesson by making him win this time from this Thar desert Lok Sabha constituency.
He said there is no "Modi wave" here and he is confident about his victory.
Geographically, Barmer is the largest parliamentary constituency in the county and is dominated by Jats and Rajputs who play a decisive role in elections here. While Scheduled Castes and minority communities are considered to be largely supportive of Congress here, there are around 5.5 lakh Jats and 2.5 lakh Rajput voters.
Manvendra, who was an MP from Barmer between 2004 and 2009 and later a legislator from Sheo, left the BJP in September 2018 and joined the Congress ahead of assembly elections in Rajasthan, citing differences with the then chief minister Vasundhara Raje of the saffron party.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Manvendra's father Jaswant Singh fought as an independent candidate from Barmer after he was denied a BJP ticket. The BJP had fielded Congress defector Sona Ram Choudhary against him, who won with a margin of around 87,000 votes. Congress candidate Harish Choudhary had come third.
BJP has denied ticket to its sitting MP and has pitted former MLA Kailash Choudhary, who belongs to Jat community, against Manvendra Singh, who is a Rajput. Kailash Choudhary is contesting the Lok Sabha election for the first time.
Last time also, there was anger, but this time the anger is more apparent and anger was also showed during assembly elections where except one seat, out of nine seats, Congress won all of them," Singh told PTI in an interview.
Asked whether he expects people of Barmer to teach the BJP a lesson and make him win, Singh said, "I am hopefully for it. I am very hopeful."
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