“Have you seen the Bharat-Pakistan match?” asks Baba Balak Nath, the BJP candidate for the Tijara seat in the upcoming Rajasthan Assembly election, addressing a small gathering at the village temple in Bubkhera. The crowd, consisting largely of Meghwals, a Scheduled Caste community, listens to him impassively.
The clean-shaven, saffron-clad seer, who has traded his diamond studs for wooden hoops this election season, thunders: “Match Pakistan ke saath jitna hai ki nahi? (Don’t we have to win the match with Pakistan?)” The Bharat-Pakistan euphemism for the Hindu-Muslim divide is not lost on his audience.
The Tijara Assembly seat is part of the Alwar Lok Sabha constituency that the 39-year-old Mr. Nath currently represents as an MP. In an election that could go down to the wire, his immediate concern is voting percentage. He does not name any community, but asks, “How much is their voting percentage?” Someone remarks that it goes up to 90%. “And how much is ours?” he asks. There is only a scattered response. He exhorts his listeners not to leave any voter behind.
