Rajasthan: Desert state’s politicians shining on national stage

Jaipur: Politicians from Rajasthan — both from the Congress and the BJP — are shinning prominently at the national stage, earning the desert state, the largest in the country, its rightful place in the big league.

It’s for the first time in almost a decade that many Rajasthan politicians are visible in prominent roles at the national level. Be it Ashok Gehlot, Dr C.P. Joshi, Bhanwar Jitendra Singh or Mohan Prakash in the Congress or Bhupendra Yadav, Om Mathur and Sunil Bansal in the BJP. They don’t just seem to have the ears of their bosses, but also have a say in decision-making.

Despite being the largest state and sending 25 MPs to Lok Sabha, Rajasthan politicians never got into the same league as former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Ahmed Patel, A.K. Antony, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Madhav Rao Scindia, Arjun Singh or G.K. Moopanar.

“In the past, no Rajasthan leader got so much prominence. It is for the first time leaders from the state are calling the shots at the national level,” said Om Saini, a political commentator.

In fact, Rajasthan had only one Cabinet minister in the Union Cabinet till 1970s. In the 1980s and 1990s, their numbers increased, but their stature in national politics remained where it was —  at the nadir. For a brief while, Natwar Singh of the Congress and Jaswant Singh of the BJP did enjoy considerable clout. But, it was only after them   that Rajasthan politicians started flourishing in both parties.  

As BJP chief Amit Shah’s “Man Friday”, Mr Yadav is seen everywhere, especially during elections, whether in Bihar and Jharkhand in the east to Rajasthan and Gujarat in the west, veteran leader Om Mathur who was poll in-charge of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, UP and Maharashtra. It was said to be on his advice that the party went solo in Maharashtra in 2015.

In Congress, Dr Joshi is presently handling nine states. At one point, he was in-charge of 17 states. Mr Singh is to Congress president Rahul Gandhi what Arun Nehru and Arun Singh used to be during initial days of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

But Mr Gehlot created the maximum buzz by replacing former Congress president Sonia Gandhi loyalist Janardan Dwivedi as general secretary (organisation and training), AICC.

“The growing stature of the state leaders is encouraging.

The party has finally realised their potential. They all hold important posts now, particularly Mr Gehlot,” Vibhuti Bhushan Sharma, vice-chairman, state Congress’ vichar vibhag said.

Veteran journalist Shyam Acharya welcomed the change in growing stature of state politicians. “Leaders from Rajasthan always held important positions, be it in Congress, BJP or the RSS. Their role was not properly evaluated by political observers and national media,” he said