It is the second Assembly election for the five-year-old Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP), which was formed by disgruntled former BJP leader Hanuman Beniwal on the eve of the last State poll. The party won three seats and played a spoiler in a number of other constituencies in 2018. But five years on, the question it faces is whether it can graduate beyond nuisance value and emerge as a third power on Rajasthan’s bipolar political stage.
This week, in an effort to expand his party’s footprint, Mr. Beniwal joined hands with Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Azad’s Azad Samaj Party.
A few days later, a dozen people are crowding into Mr. Beniwal’s door at the party’s office in Jaipur, pressed shoulder to shoulder in the sweltering heat. Hundreds of others are waiting in the verandah. Both the temperature and tempers are running high. The door is locked from within, to stop impatient visitors from barging in.
