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In Rajasthan constituency with Ram Mandir link, temple not a poll issue | Political Pulse News
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The BJP may be hoping that the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya will become an electoral issue in the run-up to the Lok Sabha election, but in the village of Bansi Pahadpur in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district, surrounded by pink sandstone mines that have been supplying stones for the temple for over three decades, the temple seemingly is not a matter big enough to sway voters.
Locals acknowledge that the temple has put their village on the map and provided them with a source of earning but it is not an election issue for them. The BJP candidate for the Bayana (SC-reserved) Assembly constituency of which the village is a part, Bachchu Singh Bansiwal, however still makes a mention of the temple while canvassing.
A drone camera operated by his supporters and a vehicle mounted with dragon lights and loudspeakers follows Bansiwal on the campaign trail. “I will resolve the problem of irrigation in this area. Also, the Ram temple is being built with stones of Bansi Pahadapur. That is my village. I mention this in my campaign because people are happy that the Ram temple is going to be inaugurated. It is a proud moment for us and people will vote on this issue,” he adds.
Bansiwal makes it a point to bring up the Ram Mandir in his speeches as there is another candidate with Hindutva credentials in the fray. Independent candidate Ritu Banawat contested the 2018 election from Bayana on a BJP ticket but lost to the Congress’s Amar Singh. That is why she is as much a threat to the BJP candidate as the MLA.
“My ticket was taken away in 2018 but I did not rebel. She became a rebel in 2013 too and in 2018 ticket was given to her but she rebelled again this time. Her husband was the district president. It is wrong to contest as a rebel.,” Banshiwal tells a group of people in Shahpur Dang village, almost 30 km from Bansi Pahadpur, before departing.
After he leaves, a youth, who identifies himself as Sanjay Gurjar, says that the BJP can win but adds that if it comes to power “the CM should someone like Yogi Adityanath who takes strong action, people are safe in UP under Yogi rule”.
Asked why Banawat lost the last election, Rajkumar Parmar, a Thakur, and Bansi Pahadpur resident says, “Then, Gujjar voters got polarised in favour of the Congress here expecting that Sachin Pilot will become Chief Minister if the party wins. It appears that Pilot will not get an opportunity to become the CM if the Congress retains power. So, it is better to look towards any other candidate. No matter that the candidate is an Independent.”
Parmar says the road connecting Bayana to Bansi Pahadpur is in an extremely poor condition and that the BJP too ignored this when in power despite the village’s link to the Ram Mandir. On the temple, he says, “That is a matter of faith but not an election issue in Rajasthan.”
Another villager, Ranbir Singh, says he values candidates with qualifications. “The Congress and BJP only made money through mining in Bansi Pahadpur but they did no infrastructure development here. So, that makes Ritu Banwat a candidate worth voting for.”
From Thakurs, Dalits, Brahmins, and Other Backward Classes (OBCs), the village has almost 2,400 voters. There are 2.65 lakh voters in Bayana, with the majority of them Jatav Dalits (85,000). The other electorally crucial groups are non-Jatav Dalits, Gurjars, Brahmins, Thakurs, and some OBC communities.
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That the Independent candidate seemingly continues to have a sizable support base in the constituency will be bad news for the BJP. Banawat whose campaign material has the green and saffron colours of the BJP flag dismisses the label of being a rebel. “I am not any rebel. I am a candidate of the public and contesting on their issues. When I contested as a BJP candidate in 2018, I received the maximum votes among BJP candidates in the Bharatpur division,” Banawat tells The Indian Express.
She says legal mining increased when the construction of the Ram temple began. “Before that, illegal mining had been happening in this area and there we only a few authorised leases. The problem is that current leases are for big mines and locals do not have the money to get those. The mining lease should be for a small area,” Banawat says, adding that Ram Mandir is not an electoral issue.
Congress MLA Amar Singh also says that while it is a matter of pride for the people of Bayana that local stone was being used for the temple, it is not a poll issue. “I am contesting on the works that the Congress government has done here to improve education and medical facilities, water supply, infrastructure development. The work that remains incomplete will be done in the next tenure,” he tells The Indian Express.
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