Rajasthan – The veteran magician shows his magic, tricks BJP

New Delhi: Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot has yet again displayed his political astuteness by outsmarting a powerful Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from his state.
  
The Congress won three and the BJP one. Zee's Subhash Chandra, who was backed by the BJP, could not repeat his 2016 performance when he beat senior advocate RK Anand despite being supported by Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal. He lost to senior Congress leader Pramod Tiwari. 

The veteran Congress magician, who used to show his magic tricks to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi when they were kids, had clearly outfoxed the media baron and the mighty BJP as well. 

This is the second time since becoming the chief minister for the third term in December 2018 that Gehlot has beaten the BJP at its own game. 

First, it was in July 2020 when his deputy and then Rajasthan Congress president Sachin Pilot revolted against Gehlot and almost brought his government to the verge of collapse. 

For days, Pilot and his loyalists remained holed up in a five-star resort on the outskirts of Delhi, hoping that some neutral legislators would join them in removing Gehlot from the post. 

But the wily politician deftly averted the crisis and saved his government. He also ensured that Pilot is removed from all posts as the price for his return to the Congress fold. 

Pilot has been waiting for rehabilitation since then with the hope that he would one day replace Gehlot. 

The buzz is that might happen soon to give Pilot enough time to work towards bringing the Congress back to power in the desert state, and make him the party's working president and eventually its face in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. 

Gehlot has never managed to retain power during his past two tenures and in fact, the Congress lost badly on both occasions. 

In the 2003 elections with Gehlot as the chief minister, the BJP registered a landslide victory winning 120 seats and restricting the ruling Congress to 56.

In 2013, the BJP scored a massive win bagging 163 seats and the Congress in one of its worst-ever poll performances won just 21.

It is also a matter of record that whenever the Congress won with Gehlot as the face it barely managed to touch the majority mark. 

In 2008, Congress secured 96 seats and the BJP 78 while in 2018 the grand old party won 100 seats and the BJP got 73.

It is widely said in Rajasthan political circles that keeping the party figure barely at the majority mark is Gehlot's game plan to put pressure on the Congress high command to not even dare to think about going with any other name. 

Apparently, he makes many of his loyalists contest the elections as independents and also ensures their win to show how only he could manage them. He would later see to it that smaller parties extend their support to the Congress, making it a smooth affair for him to run the government for five years. At times, he even got smaller parties merged into the Congress. 

In these Rajya Sabha polls too, Gehlot showed that Congress can win only if he is on board. 

As part of his strategy, he kept the party leadership on tenterhooks and perpetually guessing till the last minute. 

It was his plan to initially shift just 60 legislators to a resort and then made others join them in phases in the run-up to the polls. 

Then another lot was sent to the resort and finally, the smaller parties fell in line. A well-rehearsed script was this enacted with perfection? 

But the big question now is whether the Congress high command would still go ahead with its plan to shift Gehlot from Jaipur to Delhi or abandon the move after his stupendous performance in the Rajya Sabha elections and let him stay put till the assembly elections next year.