LS polls: Olympians, monks, royals in fray in Rajasthan

An interesting mix of candidates, including Olympians, monks, members of erstwhile royal families and sons of former and present chief ministers, is in the fray for the 25 Lok Sabha seats in Rajasthan, which goes to polls in two phases on April 29 and May 6. Some of them are pitted against each other.

Jaipur rural seat will witness a straight contest between two former Olympians -- BJP's sitting MP Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and Congress's Krishna Poonia. Rathore, also the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister, won a silver medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics in shooting. Poonia, a discus thrower, has participated thrice in the international sporting event.

According to political commentators, caste matrix plays an important role in the elections in Rajasthan. Rathore and Poonia hail from Rajput and Jat communities, respectively, both of which have a sizeable population in the constituency.

Two monks, Sumedhanand Saraswati and Baba Balaknath, will be trying their luck from Sikar and Alwar constituencies respectively. Saraswati is a sitting BJP MP and will take on Congress's Subhash Meharia -- both from the Jat community.

Balaknath, who is making his electoral debut, is pitted against Congress's Bhanwar Jitendra Singh, the scion of Alwar's erstwhile royal family. Balaknath's guru Mahant Chand Nath had defeated Singh in the 2014 general election by over 2.83 lakh votes.

However, after Nath's death, Congress's Karan Singh Yadav wrested the seat from BJP's Jaswant Yadav in 2017 bypoll. BJP's Alwar district president Sanjay Singh Naruka claimed the circumstances are "different" now.

"The biggest factor is the Modi factor and the country's self-esteem. It is a question of electing Modi again," he said. The second member of an erstwhile royal family in the fray is BJP's Rajsamand candidate, Diya Kumari. The saffron party chose the former MLA from Sawai Madhopur over its sitting MP Hariom Singh Rathore. She will lock horns with Congress's Devkinandan Gurjar.

The polls this year will also see Vaibhav Gehlot, the son of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, make his electoral debut from Jodhpur. Gehlot Senior has represented the constituency five times since 1980.

Vaibhav Gehlot will be taking on sitting BJP MP and Union Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. Shekhawat had defeated Congress's Chandresh Kumari by over 4 lakh votes in 2014 general election.

The BJP has re-nominated Dushyant Singh, son of former chief minister Vasundhara Raje, from Jhalawar. The Congress has fielded BJP-turncoat Pramod Sharma against the four-time Jhalawar MP.

Son of BJP stalwart Jaswant Singh and former party MP Manvendra Singh is another turncoat in the running. He joined the Congress in October last year and is contesting from Barmer seat. The Bikaner constituency will see a fight between two cousins -- BJP candidate and Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and Congress's Madan Gopal Meghwal.

While the Congress candidate is a debutant, Arjun Ram Meghwal has been re-nominated from the seat, which has been a BJP stronghold for the last 15 years.