A curious contest is unfolding in Churu, known as the gateway to Rajasthan’s Thar desert, and one of the hottest regions of the State. Both the BJP and Congress have fielded Jat candidates here, but the electoral battlelines are being drawn across the age-old Rajput-Jat rivalry.
After being denied a ticket by the BJP, the incumbent MP Rahul Kaswan switched over to Congress. He is now facing paralympic javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia, whom the BJP picked in his place. Rather than the face-off between these two, however, the political narrative on the ground is centred around the feud between the Kaswan family and the BJP’s Rajput face and former leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore, converting it into a prestige battle between them, with Mr. Jhajharia largely being seen as a proxy for Mr. Rathore.
Mr. Kaswan and his father Ram Singh Kaswan hold an unbroken record in this constituency; between them, they have won the seat five straight times from 1999, and the senior Kaswan previously won it in 1991 as well. “When I was denied the ticket, I asked them, ‘What did I do wrong?’ But I did not get any reply from them,” Mr. Kaswan told The Hindu, as we caught up with him on Thursday morning. He grew up calling Mr. Rathore kaka or uncle, an affectionate term for a man who used to be his father’s close friend, but Mr. Kaswan is now crying himself hoarse about how Mr. Rathore is “manipulating the system” and “misguiding the state leadership”.
