JAIPUR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Tuesday address his first election rally in Rajasthan after the announcement of the Lok Sabha election schedule.
The PM will be in Kotputli to draw support for theJaipur Rural Lok Sabha seat where the BJP has fielded Rao Rajendra Singh against Congress’ Anil Chopra.
Jaipur Rural is among the 12 seats in Rajasthan going for polls in the first phase scheduled for April 19 alongside Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur, Alwar Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa and Nagaur.
In the Jaipur Rural Lok Sabha seat a big chunk of the voters belong to Jat, Yadav, Gurjar and SC-ST castes.
The Congress has fielded a Jat candidate, Anil Chopra, who is considered to be close to former deputy Chief Minister Sachin Pilot.
Sachin Pilot attended Chopra's nomination filing and drew a huge crowd.
Kotputli is situated between Jaipur and Alwar. Jaipur Rural covers many areas of Alwar district. In view of this, PM Modi's rally here will benefit the party in Jaipur Rural as well as Alwar Lok Sabha.
BJP has fielded Rao Rajendra Singh, who was the MLA in 2003, 2008 and 2013. He was Deputy Speaker in Rajasthan Assembly during Vasundhara Raje’s tenure as CM. Rao contested Lok Sabha polls in 2009, however, was defeated by Congress’ Lalchand Kataria.
Lalchand Kataria, ex-state agriculture minister, said to be close to former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot crossed over to BJP last month.
"Rao Rajendra Singh is a genius and will surely win, " said BJP worker Pramod Vashishth.
Congress leader Archana Sharma, however, said that there is going to be a tough fight in the seat.
In the 2019 general elections, Jaipur Rural witnessed a fiercely contested battle. This constituency witnessed a 65.00 per cent voter turnout then. BJP candidate Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore won the election with a victory margin of 3, 93, 171 and secured 8, 20, 132 votes. Rathore defeated Krishna Poonia of the Congress, who got 4, 26, 961 votes.
Rathore had first won the election from here in 2014, securing 6, 32, 930 votes while the runner-up candidate was Congress' Dr. C.P. Joshi.