By Anish Singh

Ajmer, Nov 19 (UNI) Despite the Ajmer North seat being traditionally a BJP bastion, the current situation does not seem to be in favour of the ruling party legislator Vasudev Devnani, who is also a minister in Vasundhara Raje government in Rajasthan.

The constituency has 28 wards, of which 23 is dominated by the BJP and four by the Congress.

The Congress has fielded a Rajput leader Mahendra Singh Ralawata, hoping he would garner a whopping 34,000 votes of his caste.

Mr Devnani belongs to Sindhi community, which has 19,000 voters' presence in the high profile constituency of Rajasthan.

Since 2003, the BJP lawmaker, who enjoys a very clean image of being an honest and transparent leader, has been continuously winning this seat.

The locals of Rawat Nagar which is near to historically famous Anasagar Lake are quite sure of his victory again. “He has done a lot of developmental work in our constituency and we believe that he will win again,” said a shopkeeper.
However, some of the locals beg to differ and opine that this time it would not be a cake walk for the sitting MLA as there are various factors that also include encounter of Anandpal, who was by caste a Ravna Rajput. There are over 8,000 Ravna Rajputs in this assembly seat.

The grand-old party is trying to bank on a strong 30,000 Scheduled castes voters, 17,000 Muslims and since the candidate is from Rajput community it is expecting 34,000 of their votes, if polling goes for 100 per cent.

In spite of having a strong hold in Sindhi, Mali, Mahajan and Jat voters, the ruling party is trying to attract all sections of society in the region to ensure Devnani's victory.

As per the available population data, there are a total of 2,08,000 voters in the north assembly. Out of which, 19,000 are Sindhis, Mahajans 18,000, Malis 11,000 and Jats having presence of 3,000.

It is pertinent to note here that there are 13,000 Brahmins and both the parties hope to get their support.

Asked the reason for Mr Devnani's three continuous wins in the seat, Congress Spokesperson in Ajmer Muzaffar Bharti said, “Earlier, the BJP cadre had names in the both the constituencies that is north and south. They were living in south and having shops in north... so they had their names in both constituencies but we have managed to get them strike their names from one place.”

“With this, we are hopeful that will win this election,” he added.

While a BJP functionary rubbished the Congress office-bearer and said, “Our leader has won just because he has done great works for our constituency. He is easily available for the people who are in need anytime.”

In 2003, the BJP leader emerged victorious by 24,000 votes, while in 2008 Mr Devnani defeated Congress’ Dr Gopal Baheti by around 700 votes.

In 2013 too, the BJP leader got huge votes against Congress’ Dr Baheti and reached the 200-member Rajasthan house with a margin of 21,000 votes.

This seat holds significance as probable Congress chief Minister Sachin Pilot had contested his last parliamentary election from this region but he lost by 37,000 votes.

The state goes to poling on December 7 and counting will take place on December 11.
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